In the peaceful town of Devondale, young Mathew Lewin's skill fencing wins him a prize at once beautiful and terrible: a ring in which is locked the power to enslave a world. In short order it brings tragedy into Mat's life ... and turns a simple youth into a necessary murderer and haunted renegade. For what Mat now reluctantly owns is coveted by the insidious tyrant king Karas Duren, who would call forth all manner of hellish abomination to possess it. And in the savage face of unspeakable carnage and terror, a farm boy swept along by fate must answer the call to unleash the awesome might of the ring -- a power that drains the body ... and corrupts the soul.