Beyond the Twilight Mountains begins when Arachlin Irilliartha, elven thief and assassin, arrives home to pay a rare visit to his elder brother. There he discovers that Telgin is making plans to embark on his betrothal errand, the completion of which will finalize marriage arrangements begun more than three decades before. The betrothal errand is a traditional part of elvish courtship rituals, but the objective of Telgin's is not: to win his bride he must bring home the Paralin, a gem of nearly mythological significance that symbolizes the alliance between the dark elves and the dragons, whose queen holds it in the far-off fastness of the mysterious Draconic Range.While the elves and dark elves have been officially reconciled for quite some time due to the human Minstrels' Continental Law, no alliances or agreements exist between the two races. It's therefore highly unlikely that any average dark elf would agree to help Telgin in his quest to acquire such an important artifact for such a frivolous cause. Telgin's only hope is to hire a dark elf of the brethren to serve as a guide, but to hire one of those pragmatic criminals will be impossible unless Telgin has the backing of one of their own, and that's where Arachlin comes in.