Sickness runs rampant in Pazard'zhik, capital city of Trakya, and healers are powerless to stop it.
Grendel has done his job for Marcus Marchenkov, perhaps too well. He finds himself alone on the road east with Aleksandra Madasgorski-Krakova, surrounded by dangerous strangers who won't think twice about killing her or him. He must walk a precarious path where a single wrong move could be his last.
With Marko Madasgorski in control of the caravan, Jasper Thredd can no longer hide behind his guise as a simple cook. Fearing he, too, has contracted the deadly sickness, Jasper seeks help from Trakya's White Circle. However, enemies appear at every turn, and Jasper soon finds himself hunted through the streets of Pazard'zhik. Desperate, he seeks the aid of his few remaining friends in the city, putting into motion a plan of last resort - a plan that could get them all killed.
It's a race against time as Xandor, Jasper, Chert, and Grendel chase the poison-laden caravan all the way to the White River and Bregu Kraagor, a crafty orc chieftain who controls the city of Chernigov. Hope - as fleeting as it is - comes in the form of a small band of relic hunters from Michurinsk, but they, too, are trapped within the territory of the orc horde.
Can the team of investigators save them and find the cure?
