Every thread of the Liveship Traders saga races toward its convergence. As Bingtown slides toward open war with the Chalcedean states, the disgraced matriarch Ronica Vestrit, branded a traitor, searches for a way to unite the city's fractured factions against the threat. Althea and Brashen sail the once-mad ship Paragon into pirate waters to wrest the captured Vivacia from the pirate king Kennit, even as mutiny festers among their ragged crew and within the troubled ship itself. Far up the Rain Wild River, the dragon Tintaglia, freed at last from her wizardwood cocoon, takes to the skies, while the sea serpents led by Maulkin make their last desperate migration upriver before winter and exhaustion claim them. Malta, separated from her family and thrown together with the foppish Satrap, fights to survive a punishing journey, and Wintrow's bond with both Vivacia and Kennit is tested to its limit. Hobb draws together pirates, Traders, Rain Wilders, serpents, and dragons as the long-hidden truth of the liveships is fully revealed and the fate of an entire species hangs in the balance. Loyalties shift, sacrifices are demanded, and the cost of survival falls hard on nearly everyone. This concluding volume resolves the family's struggle for Vivacia, the political reckoning in Bingtown, and the ancient question the serpents have carried across the sea, bringing the trilogy to a sweeping and emotionally charged close.