This is the second Volume of the Mid-Sea Chronicles. Tiranu Shupari, Sun Priest/Magician, son of the King-of-Kings, finds himself the "guest" of a ruthless Warlord who is trying to play all sides against each other in the struggle for control of the Mid-Sea. Afraid to kill Tiranu and afraid to release him, the Sun Priest has to resort to spirit-walking and magic to survive. His faithful bodyguard, Barth Jarrow, remains in his company through good times and bad, but two characters have been added to his company since the first book, and before the book is out and they arrive at the abode of the Pirate King of Trelag Szuu, more characters are added, all colorful, all quite real. Carrying over from the first book there is Torq Baloong, the Barbarian pit-fighter who carries secrets with him that will not be revealed until the third book; and Tiranu's uncle and enemy, Taboor Shupari, who at the end of the first book is shocked into catatonia in the skirmish at the Temple of Tonotha-Ru at the end of the first book, but snaps out of it at the most inopportune moment. Later in the book there is Okko Punt, an Amazon who is tougher than most men, and her wife, Seyassa, who is beautiful and wants to have a baby, a situation which could be explosive. These two will play a bigger role in the third book, THE PIRATE KING OF TRELAG SZUU. And there's Captain Sitar Mossemos and his young wife, Azza, who works for the Warlord and has been charged with delivering his charges to Trelag Szuu, but he grows to prefer the company of Tiranu. These two characters will also be in the third book, but the author hasn't decided their ultimate fate. Their voyage south to Trelag Szuu proves to be anything but ordinary. Ancient cities come alive, mythical animals make appearances, and characters are fleshed out. What is real and what is not, like always in this series, are blended, and what looks like truth on one page may prove to be false in the pages that follow, only to become truth again in chapters to come. This is like no other fantasy series that has been published, is full of magic and spiritual truths, and mirrors our own world in many ways.