Twenty years of peace have lasted for Belleger and Amika after both countries were manipulated into an uneasy alliance by the magisters of the Last Repository. King Bifalt of Belleger and Queen Estie of Amika both navigate their uncomfortable marriage in very different ways and they each do what they can to prepare for the coming war. An ancient enemy, far more powerful than either of their kingdoms, is coming for The Last Repository and it must pass through their realms to get there. King Bifalt focuses his energy on the coming external threat but Queen Estie finds she must divert her attention to issues within Amika that put their alliance at risk. Her father may have abdicated the throne to her, but now it seems that he is up to something. If she doesn't stop him, both kingdoms will surely be lost. Unfortunately, her father is a powerful sorcerer who wields the decimate of lightning and she has no magic of her own with which to counter him. Yet, she must find a way.
Despite the fact that I was not fond of Prince Bifalt in the first book, I found this story to be much more compelling and I don't mind Bifalt as much now that he is king. Plus, Queen Estie's backstory goes a long way to flushing out the details of both Belleger and Amika and that means this book was much better than the first one. I finally started to care about the characters and the kingdoms, so the combination of internal strife and external threat kept things moving along nicely. Even though this one is clearly the middle book of a trilogy in that it resolves nothing, I do feel it set things up for an interesting finish. The real question is, will Donaldson stick the landing? This ancient enemy is still a big unknown, so it could all be a dud in the end.
Scott Brick delivers his usual solid performance as the narrator of the audiobook.