'Why don't you trust me?' he asked.
Hurt and disbelief whirled in her head. 'Because you don't trust me.'

The Lady Alon Maer, wife of duke Kien Bartheylen, is pregnant and seriously ill. Swordfighter Kyer Halidan, along with her company of friends, takes on the mission to find a cure. If they fail, Alon and her baby will die.

An alluring stranger who calls himself The Guardian turns up along the way and gives Kyer timely warnings, earning her trust, and hinting at her true identity. But is he helping her, or serving his own ends?

An uncanny escape, a gift from a dead warrior, a shocking message for Kyer's ears only, all sow suspicions among her friends that she is not who she claims to be. Even as their faith in her is tainted, her nemesis plots his vengeance: exposing unassailable evidence that it is Kyer who is attempting to murder Alon Maer.