Battling her unresolved feelings about the death of her daughter, and taken aback by a temple prophecy, Serrah attempts suicide.

Resistance activity brings down ever greater repression. The paladins are given their head and exploit the leeway with brutal excess.

The location of the planned rebel state is chosen, and at first seems bizarre to many. Batariss, universally known as the Diamond Isle, is a run-down pleasure island. Its owner is one-time pirate Zahgadiah Darrok, who travels on a magically impelled flying dish, having lost his legs to a piratical rival. Darrok agrees to sell the island for a large quantity of government gold, which the Resistance has to steal.

Tanalvah persuades Kinsel to stage a free concert for the poor. But during the event Devlor Bastorran, accompanied by newly recruited aide Lahon Meakin, arrests the singer. Accused of treason, Kinsel will face trial.

As part of his personal campaign against Caldason, Devlor employs assassin Aphri Kordenza to kill him. The female symbiote, also known as a meld, carries her own male twin, a glamour called Aphrim, inside herself. But Aphrim is capable of emerging and having an independent existence.

The waters around the Diamond Isle are infested with pirates, including the infamous Kingdom Vance, the man who deprived Darrok of his legs. It falls to the Resistance to combat this new menace.

As Kinsel goes on trial, Tanalvah discovers she’s pregnant. And Serrah is horrified to learn that Commissioner Laffon, head of the Council for Internal Security, and the man who tortured her, has come to Bhealfa to attend the hearing. The trial is a propaganda circus, and Kinsel is inevitably found guilty. He’s consigned to the galleys, as a slave rower. In effect, it’s a sentence of death.

As the warlord Zerreiss increases his sphere of influence, both empires begin to pay serious attention to him. A concern they share is that he could unite with the Resistance against them, bringing into play his still mysterious power.