Kestrel found the way home, a way that was more convoluted than he expected, and one that split him apart from Lark and Wren and the rest of his companions in the latest battle against the Viathins. But they were all going home victorious, and would be reunited in Uniontown, he suspected, as he planned to pursue the young human duchess. But his trip home turned out to be interrupted by the one thing he never anticipated - a civil war among the elves, a battle against tyranny. Kestrel finds that in the Eastern Forest he has to put aside his plans to go to Uniontown so that he can pursue the larger quest for freedom and liberty among the elves, though the Rishiare Estelle, and the companionship of an exotic deity, make the battle complicated. Only when the civil war ends will he be able to make the journey to help Lark and her father, if it isn't too late. Follow Kestrel as he finds conflict where he hoped to never see it, and then has to face unexpected challenges and failures before he may find the happiness he seeks.