With their most treacherous mission yet behind them, heroes Seregil and Alec resume their double life as dissolute nobles and master spies.

There they are bought by the alchemist Yhakobin who hopes to use Alec's Hâzadrielfaie blood to create a rhekaro, a sexless creature that can heal everything and prolong life.

Alec takes pity on the rhekaro and hates Yhakobin for torturing and killing it, and is determined to save the second one from a similar fate.

Knowing that the rhekaro will die without his blood, Alec is determined to save him and takes him along, while Seregil brings his betrayer, Ilar í Sontir, to show them a secret tunnel.

Later, the rhekaro, whom Alec names Sebrahn, shows extraordinary healing powers, which they use to get rid of their slave brands so that they are not found out by other slavers.

At the very end of the book, the Hâzadrielfaie are for the first time seen onstage - discovering that despite all their efforts a rhekaro was created and resolving to loose their hunters.