This book concludes the tale of the masters who create the joinings. They are the demons. A lot of questions concerning the demons are also answered.

It's a typical Gemmellian book. There are some heroes from a group of old soldiers who are pensioned off.
These heroes find a pregnant woman whose child is about to be scarificed. They protect the woman against seemingly impossible odds and stumble onto the dark secret that if the child is sacrificed the king of the demons will return to the land to rule over it.

A decent book, nothing special but with Gemmell it's always a good read.