Richard Lee Byers is the author of over twenty novels, including the Forgotten Realms titles The Shattered Mask, The Black Bouquet, Queen of the Depths, The Rage, The Rite, The Ruin, Unclean, Undead, and Unholy. He is also the author of Dissolution, the first title in the New York Times-bestselling R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen series.

Aoth and the Brotherhood of the Griffon have succeeded in rescuing Tchazzar, the lost king of Chessenta and a formidable red dragon, and are rewarded with a contract to aid in his war with a powerful dracolich. But the more Aoth sees of the war, the more suspicious he becomes that the Brotherhood may be just a pawn in a cutthroat draconic game that puts whole kingdoms at risk--a game played for stakes of gold and blood. And the more he sees the game play out, the more he realizes that he will have to become a player in this most dangerous of games if he wants the Realms to remain free.