Lord Cailean Dragonsson is the oldest, most powerful, and most reclusive wizard in Belarin. When he sends out a command for a conclave of his fellow practitioners, Edward Red Mage immediately assumes it's because of his own recent misadventure with a coven of vampires. But as a deadly blizzard traps them in the tower, and wizard after wizard is found brutally murdered, Ed begins to fear that Dragonsson has simply gone mad and decided to remove all competition....