The vision came long ago, commanding the Sultan's ancestor to lead his peoples to the place that would be called the Sacred City. There, deep within a rocky cavern, burns an immense, roaring column of fire: the Sacred Flame, the source of the Sultan's power. But the flame harbours a terrible secret - and so does the Sultan.
Prince Jemany is plunged into a seething hotbed of political machinations and rebellion as he begins the next stage of his quest to seek the long-lost crystals of the Orokon. Already the anti-god Toth-Vexrah is working his evil upon the susceptible and easily swayed. Only Jem stands in his way - but Jem is trapped in the bizarre, horrifying dreamworld of the enchanter Almoran.
Meanwhile, his lost love Cata becomes embroiled with the Shimmering Princess, the idol of millions, whose fate holds the key to the Sultan's empire - and to the whereabouts of the pulsing red crystal of the fire-god Theron.