The mother, ruler of an entire world Sent to the heart of an old enemy to build a new peace The daughter, officer of a deadly warship Sent to the darkness to find the new enemy hunting them all A dozen inhabited worlds of the Kanzi Theocracy and the A!Tol Imperium are ash. Millions of sentients of a dozen species are dead, including humans from the brand-new colonies built under the Imperium's watch. Despite the losses, the strange Taljzi fanatics have been defeated--but everything suggests that more will be coming. The Empress of the A!Tol has resolved that the cold war between A!Tol and Kanzi must end. She sends Duchess Annette Bond to the heart of the Kanzi Theocracy to negotiate a new alliance. Elsewhere, Bond's stepdaughter Morgan Casimir and the battleship Bellerophon are sent into the darkness beyond known space to see what they can learn about the Taljzi. As they uncover old secrets of new enemies and new secrets of old enemies the fate of humanity and five dozen other races hangs on the actions of mother and daughter alike!