Anastasia Kerensky and her Steel Wolves tried to take the planet Northwind once before and failed. Kerensky doesn't take defeat lightly and won't give up until she holds this pivotal world in her grasp. Now Countess Tara Campbell must marshall her Highlander troops for a new fight. She'll depend upon Paladin Ezekiel Crow for help, but what she discovers is that her greatest ally may yet prove to be her worst enemy.

Book 2 in The Proving Grounds Trilogy, Truth and Shadows by Martin Delrio is the fifth novel set in the universe of MechWarrior: Dark Age.