The coronation ceremony involves the Directorate of Wizards, led by Wigg, taking a magical necklace from King Nicholas before handing it over to Tristan.

During the ceremony, the sorceresses and their minions, mutated humanoid creatures with leather wings, attack and massacre the attendees, including King Nicholas and the Directorate of Wizards.

Wigg manages to cast a spell that deprives the sorceresses of their power and then destroys their keep, killing several of them and causing their minions to flee.

Succiu commits suicide by jumping from the roof of their keep, and Tristan returns later to cut his unborn child from her womb for burial.

[1][2][3] William Thompson called it "a fairly typical fledgling effort by a new author, at times well told but marred by poor decisions."

However some critics gave it praise, Kirkus reviews called it "An intelligent debut, possibly headed for bestsellerdom.

"[4] Fantasybookreview gave it a mixed review, praising Newcomb's descriptive prose, but calling the extreme violence unnecessary.