Twenty years have passed on the colony world Eridan since the end of the war between the warrior mystics of the Halka and the heirs of the tyrannical Planetary Directorate. With the Directorate and its lethal battle-drones gone, the Halka have turned all their strength to the struggle against the cannibalistic Outrunners, so that Eridan can finally be made safe for human settlement.
Yet new forces are moving as the last Outrunner bands are hunted down, and one of the survivorsan Outrunner girl whose body contains an artificial symbiotic life form-may hold the key to Eridan's survival. As strange signals arrive from space and dissension spreads through the ranks of the Halka, the girl, the symbiont, and the last heir to the Directorate's secret knowledge must reach Journey Star, the starship that brought humanity to Eridan. What they find there may begin a new era for Eridan...or destroy the Halka and everything they hope to defend.
