Conor, fighter, lawman and soldier and Gray, his Hound, a massive black wolf bear linked to him by mind and mission are on the run after their battle with the deadly hunters from another world. The massive armies of the Chan Consolidation and the Empire of Eliton, locked in a struggle for dominance of Conor's home in the Southlands have been savaged by a powerful unseen enemy. It seems the Believer, whom Conor had defeated, has returned as the Other, the Traitor, the eternal enemy of all order and life.

The powerful Eliti mothers, also fighting a civil war in the Empire against the 'uncivilized' tribes, have turned on each other in the chaos. And the Chan, shocked by their terrible losses, yearn to return to the homeland, where war has never come.

While they fend off the hunters Conor, with Gray by his side must convince Dareen, the one mother who came to the Southlands, Gettil the stoic Chan military chief and the distant tribes to make peace and fight together. This becomes more difficult because as the threat of the hunter army grows, Conor is losing his humanity. He is emerging as the mythical weapon the tribes believe him to be; an implacable and brutal bringer of violence and death, demanding a confrontation with the hunters, his voice like that of a god.

Looming over everything they hope for is the grim prophecy that Gray will cover the world in darkness rather than let the Traitor prevail, which it will if the people of the known world do not unite.