Waylaid in their quest for the orb of the Air, Magiere, Leesil, Chap, and Wayfarer have all been wrongly imprisoned. But it is Magiere, the dhampir, who suffers the most as a cloaked interrogator employs telepathic torture. Arriving at the Suman port city in search of Magiere, Wynn Hygeorht and her companions—including vampire Chane Andraso—seek out Domin Ghassan il’Sänke for assistance, which proves no easy task. The domin is embroiled in a secret hunt for a spectral undead with the power to invade anyone living and take the body as its host. Even if Wynn can manage to free her friends from prison, battling this entirely new kind of undead hidden inside host bodies may be a challenge none of them can survive