In the second of a vivid new series, Mark Kreighbaum returns to the alluring, terrifying future world he and bestselling author Katharine Kerr created in Palace.

On a planet wreathed in perpetual mist and scarred by a bloody uprising, the fragile peace between the arrogant humans and the oppressed Leps hangs upon a few key survivors. Vida, now a power in Palace's ruling family, tries to bridge the gap between the species, only to find her brilliant destiny threatened by a devastating secret. Her lover Rico, powered by cyberdrugs, races against time on the back roads of the virtual Mapspace to trap the Lep terrorist Riva. Meanwhile, in the city catacombs, Dukayn, Government House's security chief, steps up his sadistic interrogations, fueling the fire...until suddenly the threat of civil war is all too real.

Now, as Riva plots to unleash the most dangerous Lep of all time, Vida and Rico find themselves locked in a perilous battle to recover a lost biotech that holds monstrous death . . . or the very keys to life itself.