Synopsis

A planetary shift causes the near extinction of human life. The few survivors are left with almost no technology, and have to rely on the preserved crafts and skills of their ancestors to build a new world. Five generations later, an almost medieval society has formed on the rubble of what was once a great city.

The goblin wars with men ended long ago, but Haghuf, one of the deep-dwellers among the goblins, has a long memory. He does not like humans, he does not travel to the surface world where the creatures dwell. However, one night, while deeply entranced in the spirit of The Dance, the Shamanic rhythm that connects the goblins to the heartbeat of the earth, Haghuf feels a harmonic rhythm coming from an unlikely source. From above.

His footsteps follow the rhythm to its source and for the first time since the days when men fought with swords, he emerges into the blinding moonlight of the human world to discover the cause. He finds a man dancing to the magical earthpulse that marks him as a magician. Curiosity outweighs prejudice and Haghuf uncharacteristically reveals himself to the human magician, sharing in The Dance with the man he will soon know as Count Anton.

The improbable friendship leads Haghuf to welcome Anton into the goblin caverns, within limits. Count Anton, naturally curious about the magical creatures he has discovered, becomes enchanted with their anarchic lifestyle and tries to learn as much as he can about the goblin culture and their ways of magic. But long habits of secrecy do not die easily. The information revealed to the human visitor, despite the protection of the sacred designation of 'guest' which safeguards him from molestation, becomes a game between Anton and Haghuf.

One night a man storms out of his home after an argument with his wife and does not return. A search party is raised in the early morning hours to look for him. However, he has wandered into the tunnels of the old underground transportation system, long forgotten by men and now the realm of the Betweeners, the goblins who physically most resemble their human ancestors. He is captured and toyed with before being drugged and expelled into his own world, to wake on a hillside with only vague dream-like memories of his time among the goblins.

By a fluke, the human search party happens to be outside the opening where the man is expelled, and one of the goblins is seen. The men, seeing what they believe to be a demon from their mythologies, immediately attack and try to dig the goblins out of their hastily sealed tunnels. The goblins lead them on a merry chase through a labyrinth of tunnels while Haghuf slips out to seek help from the leader of the humans himself, Count Anton.

During the chase, a female goblin is captured by the humans. Talla, beautiful to both human and goblin despite her white hair and eyes that mark her as a child of the Kolksu, has the magical ability to appear human to men. The glamour does not work on their women. The men who have captured her believe they have rescued a woman of their own kind. Each in their own way is entranced by her beauty.

Talla escapes her captors, and the combined efforts of Count Anton and Haghuf avert the immediate crisis. But some men will not forget the existence of the demons. Even as Anton is tracking the goblin woman to return her to her world, the inevitability of war is breaking out across the river. A fanatical religious leader who will not stop at murder to see the demons eradicated puts Anton between a mob of humans intent on genocide, and the world of the goblins who will protect themselves, even if it means killing every last human.