Bound and helpless, Kinto Senji is dragged across the scorching sands of the Sarrian Desert, his magic sealed and his fate uncertain. His captors, Vorrik, a hardened former soldier, and Kethar, a sharp-tongued fugitive, have been promised a fortune for delivering him to the Empress. But the desert is relentless, the nights long and suffocating, and captivity brings a different kind of heat.