Veradis leaps through the wall of flame to protect Prince Nathair from a giant. He wounds the giant before it knocks him unconscious. Veradis awakens to his friend Rauca, who explains that the Vin Thalun man orchestrated the magical attack to demonstrate their power; they could have harmed the prince but chose not to. Rauca sets Veradis’s broken nose.

On the ride to Jerolin, Tenebral’s capital, Nathair reveals that he has brokered a peace treaty with the Vin Thalun corsairs. Veradis and Rauca are shocked, as the Vin Thalun have been raiding Tenebral and many other countries in the Banished Lands for generations, but Nathair plans to use the corsairs as they seek to use him. He and the Vin Thalus counselor Calidus make his men swear secrecy from King Aquilus.

At Jerolin, they find Peritus, Aquilus’s battlechief, has returned from fighting giants with half his warband lost. After a tense ten-night, Aquilus agrees to the treaty that Nathair has brokered, but he tells Nathair he distrusts the corsairs and warns that war is coming. Veradis sees the banner of King Rahim of Tarbesh approaching, the first to answer the council summons.