The continuing story of Tig, whose quiet life in the archives comes to an end when the nasty Primate, real power behind the throne, since Tig's older brother became king, engineers a treaty with another country that depends on a marriage between Tig and Princess Rinn. Tig has to agree as the Primate will sell Tig's beloved archives otherwise.

After the marriage, they embark on a sea voyage to Rinn's homeland. She turns out to be self absorbed and sex mad with every young man onboard but following a number of assassination attempts, and his gradual realisation that the Lady of Gil was not destroyed when he smashed the artefact containing 'her', and the entity is in his mind, pressing him to become 'one' with it, Tig pretends to be a doting husband to deceive Rinn and her cousin as he starts to comprehend the hidden agendas of his new in-laws.

I found this more interesting than the first volume. At least there was no harping on about dirt and squalor, and instead we learn a lot more about the previous history of the various empires that have risen and fallen, and ultimately how it relates to the Lady.

After six years following the events of book one Tig is dealing with his grief and guilt over Calla, though I did start to wonder if all the dreams about her and a little boy indicated that he was going to discover that she had survived after all, so I wasn't surprised when Calla turned up with their son halfway through . Lord Shree, former Sherank warlord, is now a scholar but takes up duty as Tig's bodyguard and another character, Chasco, who is an ex member of the resistance, joins them. The characters are more disparate this time around, though some are not well realised, e.g. Rinn who is a shallow stereotype. As in the first volume, there is self deprecating humour.

One quirk of the first person style is the odd "little did I know" type aside and Tig's narration of the progress of a terrible plague through the known world while he and the others are at sea, which you have to assume he found out about after the events of this book ended, as although the plague reaches the island he ends up on via a ship from elsewhere, he has no way of knowing exactly how devastating it has been. Also given that he has had to accept union with the entity, I imagine that the third volume must deal with the fallout of the plague given that Tig only cured it on the islands, and the return to Gil after his separation from Rinn. Or maybe not - apparently the third volume is set 20 odd years later, narrated by his son, so that seems a bit odd. ( )