After admitting to killing King Shandor in the Cotti courts and assassinating Prince Lerton, second in line to the throne, in order to ensure Kerrion's ascension, the Queen's Blade is shot in the back by a Cotti spy and almost dies on the journey home from Jadaya. In the border camp, a Cotti assassin tries to kill Blade again, using a poisoned weapon, and the assassin seems bound to die this time. Queen Minna-Satu sends her physician to accompany him on the journey to Jondar, achieved despite winter snows. Blade recovers, and Minna-Satu names him Lord Protector of Jashimari. Although still incapacitated, the assassin faces a challenge for his title of Master of the Dance from a rival Dance Master during Jondar's last days. As two armies converge upon the doomed city, the young Queen Minna-Satu prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice and save her people from slavery and slaughter by placing King Kerrion's new-born daughter on the Jashimari throne. Blade's unwanted wife, Chiana, first advisor to the Queen, is chosen as regent, and she tries to glean some small gestures of affection from her glacial husband before the end, for he will surely die when his enemy reaches Jondar. The Queen's advisors rail against her plan to sully her bloodline with a half blood queen, but the Idol of the Beasts has told her it is the only way to prevent her kingdom's destruction. The Princess' life is in danger from plotting Jashimari lords who wish the war to continue, and Blade seeks a painless death, fearing a torturous one as his enemy approaches...