Aleron's world turns upside down during a journey to the capital, when a mishap reveals that the simple country boy is heir to the thousand-year vacant throne of the Sudean kingdom, that he is a halfblood, a human/elf mix nearly certain to grow into a powerful sorcerer, and his grandfather is not the retired human soldier he pretended, but really a nine-thousand-year-old elvish sorcerer known from legend and thought dead for four thousand years. Aleron must first reconcile himself with a destiny that he never wanted but was ordained of an ancient prophecy. Later, his betrothed abducted for a political pawn, he must use his now formidable abilities to rescue his love from her enemy captors, but at what price? New and expanded edition, with eight new chapters and 45 additional pages.