His thousand years of exile were meant to teach Hedin, Sage of Darkness, the error of his ways. Instead, he had ten centuries to learn new and powerful magics, knowledge he intends to use to challenge not just the Mages of his Generation who sentenced him but the very gods themselves. From bestselling Russian fantasist Nick Perumov, voted best European SF writer in 2004, comes a sword-and-sorcery adventure in the classic mode of Robert E. Howard with an added dash of Beowulf.