One thousand years after disaster befell the colonists from Earth, the fall of their new home, and the theft of their DNA by the insects of Maalstrom, life flourishes, though not as one would expect. Flores, Lord of the Turlicum, is escorting his wife, Crestal, to her birthplace, when a horde of slavers attack their encampment. While Flores battles the interlopers, Crestal is captured and stolen away by the Guildmaster, Flores's sworn enemy. And thus begins his journey to rescue Crestal. It's a journey fraught with danger: stampeding Rum-na, cannibal draks, giant gladiators, and other strange DNA creations of Vensor's Mother. He finally finds Crestal in a prison with an old man, Yezd, the last remaining engineer from Earth, a maker of miracles. They follow him to the land of the Selks to their Island of the Sun-god and the Black Pillar where Yezd's true motives are revealed.