This new heroic fantasy in Gemmell`s engrossing Drenai series takes place immediately before his first published novel, Legend (1984), but stands well on its own. Skilgannon, swordmaster and former general of Queen Jianna`s army, walked away from the queen`s service after his forces sacked a city with such savagery that his name is ever after followed by "the Damned." He`s spent three trying years submitting to monastic discipline in hopes of understanding the places of man and evil in the world. His dreams are disturbed by a white wolf; his thoughts by memories of his dead ...