Roo Avery, recently returned from a harrowing brush with the armies of the Emerald Queen, is now free to choose his own destiny and his ultimate ambition is to become one of the richest and most powerful merchants in Midkemia. But nothing can prepare him for the dangers of the new life he has chosen where the demand for repayment of a debt can be as deadly as a knife in the shadows. Even those closest to him are suspect and as Roo struggles to build his financial empire, betrayel is forever...

Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe. But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years. Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread...

The Demon Spirit. Elbryab and Pony hope that the tide of darkness unleashed on Corona in "The Demon Awakens" is at last receding. Yet despite past sacrifices and endeavours there is no sign that evil is on the retreat. It falls to the two to deal with dangerous magic.

Swords Against Death, the second story in the Lankhmar series, finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser beginning their real journey. Their hearts altered by the loss of first true love, they embark on a long and winding path of drunken debauchery and womanizing until crossing paths with two cross wizards, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Nigauble of the Seven Eyes. A most violent of clashes ensues.