The seventh installment in the award-winning & best-selling series!

Triumphant in the far west, Knight Commander Prentice Ash has led the Gryphon Banner Company home exhausted. They will find no rest however, for Archduchess Amelia and the Lion Banner Company have been forced to retreat from Aubrey by a Veckander mercenary army, led by forces doing the bidding of the Inquisition. Thankfully, a refuge has been offered by a new ally from an unexpected quarter.

Baroness Penelope of Bridgetown has thrown off the Usurper Daven Marcus's occupation, refusing to bow to the kingslayer's forces. She will offer the White Lions refuge in her besieged town, if they will train her a militia like the Western Reach. Built on islands in the great Murr River, Bridgetown's fortifications guard the only official connection between two mighty, ancient enemies, and both would claim it for themselves.

Bridgetown's symbol is the mighty bear, but the baroness has only cubs at her command. She needs the Lions to defend her town while her cubs come of age. But Bridgetown could prove to be as much a trap as a refuge - the young cubs are hungry, and many resent the Lions' presence. Worse still, the Inquisition's Bluebird is hiding somewhere in the town, singing his mystical songs to stir greater treachery.

Prentice and Amelia must fight to survive the machinations within and defeat the enemies without. If they cannot, then Bridgetown and its bears will destroy them, far from the home they have fought so long to save.