Brant buys an ancient sword at an auction but there are others who want it, too, and they are prepared to kill for it.
Brant and his friends run from them. Brant soon discovers that it is no ordinary weapon far from it. The sword is not only old but also unique. Whatever its owner wants it to achieve, it delivers as if it had read the wielders very mind.
Brant uses it to aid the wizard Valtandir in the defence of Gullen and the Southlands from cruel domination by the evil sorcerer Venain. But its use awakens other forces as well, and as a result, Vellina a wrongly ill-treated young lady finds within herself powers hitherto unimagined in the world and vows to bring change and free the Southlands from the thrall of magic and brutal barons.
