Summary A horrible threat hangs over the Kingdom: but for once it does not issue from Xax and Kreel. The evil sorcerer, the Magus Zadrim, has been working in concert with the scientist Voss to develop a horrifying new strain of a deadly virus knows as the Yttrium Element. Voss has succeeded in rarefying the Element to the point where once added to water it multiples its strength a hundredfold: any living thing coming into contact with the contaminated water will die horribly. Triumphant, Zadrim comes to Xax and Kreel and issues his ultimatum: either they will surrender half the kingdom to him, or they will find themselves ruling a land up entirely of dead settlements ... At Kalem's counsel Will sends Aruna to the house of Athelstan, Voss' Master to pose as his assistant. She rapidly discovers Voss plan and she and the band pursue him toward Zadrim's Eyrie where Voss is scheduled to sell the flask containing his deadly invention. But on the way Voss is killed and Zadrim snatches the flask; and Will finds himself on a rescue mission with a most unlikely ally - Xax ... Aruna steals the flask back and the band is pursued in their turn by Zadrim. At the river marking to boundary of the Torrid Zone the two groups engage in desperate battle over the flask. In a curious twist of fate, Xax ends up saving the life of his sworn enemy - they are for once united by a common interest: saving Kale from wholesale destruction. As Zadrim magically pulls the flask out of Will's grasp and toward himself, Will fires a bolt from the crossbow - and the flask shatters over Zadrim. The sorcerer is killed instantly, and Zadrim's soldiers flee. Then the band turns on Xax - but Will cannot allow the man who has just saved his own life to be executed. He allows Xax to go unscathed - but the next time they meet it will be under very different circumstances ...

• Adventure
• Swashbuckler
• Fantasy