Anton, an ambitious young knight, and Wulfgang, an amiable teenager who hears Voices that may belong to the devil or saints (depending on who tells the tale), join Cardinal Zdenek's forces with the assignment to take the strategic fortress at Cardice, command the army there, and hold Cardice against neighboring enemies.

Medieval magic, murder, and mayhem! It is 1164, and for a hundred years England has been ruled by the Normans. A young Saxon boy named Durwin, crippled by a childhood accident, had caught the eye of a Norman sage teaching at a rural school of magic. Realizing that the boy had promise, Durwin was made stable boy, and eventually allowed to attend classes. Now twenty, Durwin is proficient enough that he is assigned to teach, but the other sages refuse...