If your friend is possessed and tries his best to kill you, is he still your friend?
Oh come on. Really?
Fenwick interrupted Caz's peaceful existence with another assignment from the king. After a difficult mid-winter journey, they find things are far worse than reported. A mage of the Dark Arts has appeared. The two return to the city and obtain assistance from Lucy and the queen.
When Caz returns to the Eastern March, the time of the annual incursion of the horse nomads is near. Caz rides east to find a suitable place for an ambush. Caz and his forces, aided by the crown prince and some of the king's personal troops, spring the trap perfectly.
Caz learns that the leader of one of the kingdom's most powerful criminal organizations has kidnapped his father. The law and the crown are unwilling or unable to help. Caz and Fenwick deduce that the kidnapping is only meant to draw the two of them into a trap.
What sort of courage does it require to walk into a known trap, without knowing what the threat is that's waiting?