L.E. Modesitt, Jr. returns to the world of Corus. This novel concludes the trilogy of the intertwined stories of Dainyl, the Alector, and Mykel, the native soldier.
The civilization of the Alectors, which has farmed and developed all life on Corus to sustain their vampiric civilization, must move wholesale from one planet to another every few thousand years as it exhausts the life force of another world.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. returns to the world of Corus. This novel concludes the trilogy of the intertwined stories of Dainyl, the Alector, and Mykel, the native soldier. The civilization of the Alectors, which has farmed and developed all life on Corus to sustain their vampiric civilization, must move wholesale from one planet to another every few thousand years as it exhausts the life force of another world. This time, two worlds have been prepared, and the time is at hand for the great move. And Corus is the loser, to be abandoned by the civilizing forces of the government of Alectors but used as a dumping ground for malcontents and others who don't make the cut to move on to a richer new world. This neither bodes well for the future of human civilization, nor for the honest Alectors such as Dainyl, who fights to hold everything together while all systems fail. But the mysterious Ancients, the Soarers, are a force to be reckoned with, and they may hold the powerful and destructive trump card.