Charged with the task of secretly escorting the infant child, Keevan, to safety, Captain Cahlder thinks his early retirement an easy thing to earn. But an enemy ambush scatters even the best laid plans to the wind. The battle leaves the old soldier with a child to protect, a failing grasp on reality and a forgotten race marshaling its forces to take the child for their own. But the will of men stands as nothing against the will of the Maker in deciding the Fate of the Child.