"Take the lute. Be safe, be careful, trust no one, and live, my child, live to write a glorious ballad about your adventure..." With these words, a dying elf gives young bard Gillien Songespynner a magical lute and changes her life forever. For someone is after the lute--a relentless adversary who is never what he seems, and who will stop at nothing in order to prevent Gillien from delivering the lute safely to Queen-mother Ariel. All too soon, the young musician is on the run, brutally bereft of family, even of her true identity. Her only companion on this desperate adventure is a former swordsman named Daric, charged by a mysterious patron with protecting Gillien and the lute. But Daric has a haunted past and secrets of his own that may well betray them both...that is, if they live long enough....