Someone has broken open the long-sealed secret passage in the palace of Westford. While Surchatain Ares is investigating the breach, an intruder uses this same passage to kidnap his young wife Nicole from her bed. And Ares discovers the kidnapper to be someone they had long assumed to be dead. Recovering Nicole is only half the battle, for Ares must find out who paid a dead man to kidnap the Surchataine of Lystra, and what he intended to do with her...