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He came out of the dark night with only another man's name...a man who would soon be found floating in a distant river. He was a man without a past, without a future; he had only a bloody mission. His first act was violent murder! He was a man... or was he? Just who was Victor Salsbury? And if he was not a man, then... what was he? And who were the unseen masters, who issue orders only on whim? What were their plans for the world... plans so horrifying that they could change an unfeeling, nonhuman creature into a frightened human

They thought they knew how the universes worked. They were wrong!

In the almost two centuries since the discovery of the first interuniversal portal, Arcana has explored scores of other worlds--all of them duplicates of their own. Multiple Earths, virgin planets with a twist, because the "explorers" already know where to find all of their vast, untapped natural resources. Worlds beyond worlds, effectively infinite living space and mineral wealth. And in all that time, they have never encountered another intelligent species. No cities, no vast empires, no civilizations, and no equivalent of their own dragons, gryphons, spells, and wizards.

But all of that is about to change. It seems there is intelligent life elsewhere in the multiverse. Other human intelligent life, with terrifying new weapons and powers of the mind...and wizards who go by the strange title of "scientist".

It began with two men. They came from very different worlds--entirely different universes, in fact--one using sorcery and the other using mental powers and steam-age technology. They met in a virgin forest on a duplicate planet Earth. Neither side knows who shot first, but each blames the other, and it doesn't really matter, now, because war has begun.

War between the universes is the last thing responsible leaders on either side want. But the fury of their respective populations, xenophobic fear of the unknown, and cries for "justice" (or vengeance), are all driving both sides towards the brink. And unscrupulous, power-hungry men--and Arcana and Sharona alike--have agendas of their own.

The fuse has been lit, and a war stretching across the universes, fought between dragons, spells, and crossbows and repeating rifles, machine guns, and artillery is erupting in white-hot rage and fury. Where it will end--and how--no one knows.

The war between magically gifted Arcana and psionically talented Sharona continues to rage. The dragon-borne Arcanan assault across five universes has been halted at Fort Salby by a desperate defense, but at atrocious cost. One of those costs was the life of Crown Prince Janaki, heir to the newly created Sharonian Empire, who went knowingly to his death in the tradition expected of the House of Calirath. And another price will be the sacrifice of his younger sister, Grand Imperial Princess Andrin, now heir of Sharona, for the accords creating the Sharonian Empire require the marriage of the heir to the Crown to wed a Uromathian prince.

Andrin bears her family's Talent, the Glimpses, which show flashes of events yet to come. She knows the accords must be secured...and, like her brother, she will pay any price, make any sacrifice for her duty to her people.

Sharona's soldiers dig in, facing the Arcanans in a tense standoff that cannot last long. Both sides continue rushing reinforcements toward the front, but how do armies fight wars when they can reach one another only through the portals that join the universes? And far, far behind the front, carried by dragons, a young Voice name Shaylar and her husband, Jathmar, hurtle deeper and deeper into Arcanan captivity, their only protection the fierce personal honor of the Andaran officer whose men massacred all of their companions in the horrendous misunderstanding that began the entire conflict.

Men and women of honor on both sides must grapple with the terrible costs and deadly secrets of the spreading cataclysm, and in the shadows, those who will balk at neither treason nor murder drive the conspiracies that pour fuel into the furnace. The stakes are high, and the pieces are in motion, but there are factors known not even to the conspirators, and not even a Calirath can Glimpse the final outcome.