Fire blazes over war-ravaged lands, devouring entire nations and erasing the borders of former states from the maps. And through these bitter lands, filled with refugees and deserters, soldiers and marauders, monsters and people who in a single moment became more beastly than beasts, a white-haired witcher walks - with a sword on his back and a spark of hope in his heart. He goes without really knowing where. He goes because he cannot help but go. But in order to master this path, you need to endure baptism by fire. Test of endurance. Test of loyalty. A test from which no one will emerge the same... The saga of A. Sapkowski has long occupied an honorable place in the world tradition of the fantasy genre, and Geralt has become a cult character not only in the world of literature, but also in the universe of computer games. The fifth book in the Witcher series is published for the first time with illustrations by Denis Gordeev, created specifically for this publication.