A ruthless predator is stalking Star Colonel Richard Bekker of Clan Ghost Bear-time. Once he was a rising star, the hero of the Damian disaster. But all that ended on the world of Tukayyid where Bekker's bright future-and the entire Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere-were stopped cold.
Two decades later, Bekker is a warrior with an undistinguished history that hides a shameful secret. Even worse, in a culture that prizes youth, he is old, old enough to be relieved of duty. And when Clan warriors are relieved they don't retire-they're turned into cannon fodder.
Then Bekker is challenged to a Trial of Possession by the head of a new bandit kingdom, a man who seems little better than the terrorists Bekker is tasked to hunt.
A man named Devlin Stone. And maybe, just maybe, the Trial will offer him a chance to win the greatest prize imaginable, a new place in the universe.
