Synopsis: It's a long wait until the Final Battle between Law and Chaos, when all Adepts of the Blue Star are pledged to fight on the side of Law. So what does one do in the intervening centuries? Lythande has to earn a living, after all. Music and magic are saleable skills--sometimes both together. There's a magic lute.... The allure of a mermaid's song... a temperamental music-loving dragon... magical artifacts that will allow no one to turn them from their appointed destinations... an unexpectedly dangerous small child... Lythande's life is full of challenges, of which the biggest is never allowing the Secret that preserves each Adept's power to be revealed, on pain of total loss of magic... oh, and death.