The hounds of death had pursued the bard right to the magician's hidden citadel. And this desperate encounter between Bard Byron and the magician named Seymor would prove a time of destiny's change for both of them. For even as Seymor attempted a spell to save Byron, a deeper magic rescued from the very jaws of death. Together bard and magician were forced to flee to the king's palace, the one place where they hoped to find sanctuary from countless enemies. And along the way Seymor learned that Byron was more than a simple bard. He was a man possessed by the white mists of power, perhaps the long-prophesies bringer of a terrifying doom to all humankind. . . .