The Hoorka, a guild of skilled assassins, maintain their existence in the turbulent society of Neweden through strict obedience to a stern code of neutrality: Kill only when hired. Reveal your client only if successful. If the victim survives until dawn, he goes free.

Through years of harsh training and iron discipline, the Thane of Hoorka Guild has molded a group of men and women without kinship, lassari outcasts, into a lethal force separate from the blood feuds and intricate alliances of other clans. The Alliance of Worlds has been watching the Hoorka closely with an eye to allowing them to operate offworld.

But now an important target has eluded the Hoorka's weapons--the leader of the opposition party. And the Rule of Neweden, maker of the contract, suspects them of treachery. Beset with suspicion and fear, and challenged by a young usurper within the Guild, the aging Thane faces a day of reckoning: He can abide by the code he created, or break it in the name of expediency. His fateful decision could mean a new future for the Hoorka--or its end for all time.