Book excerpt: After years of deadly quests and dangerous enemies,Tiger and Del have finally found relative saftey in a secluded desert canyon. They enjoy a settled, if somewhay less exciting, life raising their daughter, Sula, and training Tiger's son, Neesha. They also train all those who manage to find them, thus forming their own school of sword-dancing. But the manhunt for Tiger has not ended, for he is still an outcast from the brotherhood of sword-dancers for breaking the oaths of honor codes of Alimat, and his deadly brethren seek to kill him. To add to the threats, an old enemy, Umir the Ruthless, has offered substantial bounty for anyone bringing Tiger to him alive. Umir possesses a powerful grimoire--a book of spells that Tiger had locked by magic--and he is determined to use any means at his disposal to force Tiger to unlock this deadly book.