内容简介：
Tsikka walks the dark Thorn Waste trail, accompanied by an armed escort sent by the Southern Chair. She is destined to serve the Northern Chair as a Sensitive and Inquisitor. In order to complete the journey, the party must pass through the country of the Hunneri-a race of deadly predators and sworn enemies of her people; the hunner-praa wars still smolder. As they pass a stagnant pond, beneath the soaring trunks of the Thorn trees, one of the soldiers falls to the ground, mortally wounded. A bloodcurdling cry from the mist tells the remaining men that they are now face to face with a solitary Hunner male. The swift hunter easily dispatches the escort and seeks out the girl, who is hiding nearby. As he prepares to dispatch the last of the group, he is suddenly stopped in mid-stroke-something in this woman speaks to him. What is it? What potential does she possess that only this chance meeting of enemies can realize?