The passage through the castle is dim, sensed by few and walked by only one. Flagg knows the way well. In four hundred years, he has walked it many times, in many guises, but now the passage serves its true purpose. Through the spyhole it conceals, the court magician observes King Roland - old, weak, yet still a king. Roland's time is nearly over, though, and young Prince Peter, tall and handsome, the meausre of a king in all ways, stands to inherit...