I love this story it has been a long time since I read it more than twenty years maybe the story still holds up to this day. I really loved the characters especially Daine she is a very strong character whom has strong magic and communicates with all kinds of animals. She is very interesting getting along with certain people and doing what she can not to cause war since they are in a country that has attacked Tortall before. There are many great characters along with characters that were easy to hate all so very interesting to read. The plot was great it starts with the Tortall group going to Carthak for diplomatic reasons things happen the evil mage Ozorne does many not so great things and it ends looking forward to reading more.