For centuries the nobility of Aureity have been breeding their children for psychic power. When their sons reach manhood, they enter the arena to prove their strength in a series of magical duels. The winner is offered honor, high office, and lifelong pairing with a woman of high rank, so his entire future life and the quality of his descendants depend on his success.

Two of the contestants in the tournament at Bere Parochian do not fit the pattern. Humate of Alfet is an adolescent, too young to have taken the proper training. But Humate has special reasons for trying to jump the line and he is a scion of an imperial family. His bloodlines have given him incredible power, and he relies on that alone to master any grown man he is likely to meet in the games.

The other is Quirt of Mundil, an older man, who proved himself a champion in his youth and has now returned to the arena with his own secret agenda. He cannot hope to match the boy in sheer strength but he knows all the tricks.

This time there is more than a winner's crown at stake--there is atrocity and revenge. There is even a possible war, and there is the hand of a lady.