"The ankh is seen as cursed . . . a seal of the most hideous kinds of death." For more than three thousand years, this ancient weapon, the crux ansata, has been a symbol of the greatest terror. Legends of its evil are found throughout Naveron; in Aelif, durndor, and human history. Now, this awful device is the only hope that all the peoples of Naveron have for life. For it is the key to a terrible portal through time and space, a Door to Hell, established millennia ago atop what once was a holy Mount, which now overlooks the skeletal remains of a great city of the past, the despoiler of its world. And a Daemon of the netherworld stands with the Door he created all those years ago, ready to throw it wide and loose the denizens of the Abyss onto an unsuspecting land. In the daemon's way stands his own former disciple, a murderess seven times over, ripped from her people at a young age and bound to the ankh almost before she could walk. By a trick of fate, she has escaped the daemon and his servants and now has a chance to learn the secrets of her past. In her struggle to overcome the evil she has done, and to resist the daemon's temptations to return to his side, she must also master the ankh or all those she now loves will be lost. Aided by her new-found friends, she must find the way to redemption before the daemon confronts her with her choice: to open the daemon's Door or Seal it forever. The fate of the world hangs upon her decision.