War comes knocking on Clan Iredale's front door. As diplomacy fails, one chieftain's choice will decide the fate of his clan. One magus's heroism will decide the fate of the Inland Empire and the Holy Oregon. Edmund, chieftain of Clan Iredale, has struggled valiantly to avoid the outbreak of war. But now, his efforts backfire with shattering results. The Mother Metropolitan declares a holy crusade against Clan Iredale. The forces marshaling to attack stagger the imagination. Only Edmund's complete surrender can prevent his people's annihilation. While Edmund bravely prepares to fight a hideous war he cannot win, Vlod, his personal magus, embarks on a much lonelier and much more perilous course of action. Against his chieftain's express orders, Vlod secretly works to develop a weapon that will shift the balance of power in Edmund's favor-a weapon that threatens to wipe out the religion of the Goddess and the God. Vlod's heresy might prove Clan Iredale's only hope for survival-but it might also endanger the clans of the Inland Empire and the Holy Oregon greater than any war. The Heretic's Son, The Assassins of Harmony, Book 3, weaves a heroic tale, set in a post-industrial future, in which physical survival and spiritual belief threaten to obliterate each other...and humanity.