"You have interesting ideas."  Piers Anthony

Magically kidnapped from Earth to another world, Andy learns his abductors think he's a famous knight who can save them from marauding dragons. But ever since he paralyzed his brother, Andy wants no part of hurting anything. And yet if he doesn't fight, all those relying on him will perish – and never send him home. Plunged into violence, Andy tries to find a way back without taking a life, never suspecting he might redeem his own.

It's not the only thing he's hiding. In the woods lies a lake that's home to a sentient, water-dwelling species who are often captured by Sollin and put on display. In the last raid, one of Rive's friends was taken, so he's come to rescue them while pretending he's here for the weekly tournaments.

At the games, he attracts the attention of Alena, a naive young woman who doesn’t care he's poor, unlike her powerful, wealthy family. But her older sister cares. Lianna wants to break them up and amuse herself at the same time, so she disguises herself as a fictitious woman and reintroduces herself to Rive, trying to seduce him away from Alena. But Lianna finds it is her who's seduced – by her ideas of him and of herself unraveling and opening up a whole new world to her. When she learns of his rescue plans, she's torn between betraying him or helping, for she knows who orders the raids – her influential father. He wants to get rid of Rive, so when he sends Rive into the forest on an expedition to learn the truth about the rumors, he leaves nothing to chance; the men accompanying Rive have orders to see he joins the dead – or undead – and never returns.