Tellurith, the head of a great ruling House in Amberlight, inexplicablyfinds a battered outlander left for dead in the streets of the legendary city— and an oracle reveals that he must not die. The man, although strippedof his memory, may know of a threat to Amberlight's unique possession: themotherlodes of the qherrique, the pearl-rock that gives their world its mostpowerful tool. Tangled in intrigue, insurrection and brutal warfare, it willtake a cataclysmic upheaval for Tellurith and the stranger to begin to grasp themore-than-human mystery that brought them together.