"The Riddle of the Dread Imposition"... The Second book of "The Tarsius of Amriath" Trilogy continues the tale of the stubborn resilience in the lands of Amriath against the monstrous evil that seeks to overwhelm them.With the first Darkling Horde destroyed; Eldamar, The Lord Guardian of The Light, is now at liberty to commence his quest to the East to seek out the key to the riddle which will free his Dragon allies from the blight of "The Dread Imposition"... the terrible retribution imposed upon them by the Dreadful, Dark Entity, Baelar, as punishment for confounding his designs to turn all back to Chaos."The Dread Imposition" transformed them from their original human form into Dragons... feared and shunned by all others. The Riddle exists, carved on a stone tablet in the Dragon Eyrie of Storien-Rhudd. A covenant was laid between Eldamar and the Dragons that, if they would ally themselves with his forces to destroy the first marauding Darkling Horde; then he would seek out the key to the riddle to set them free.  Now the way lies clear for him to honour this covenant.The key to the riddle is said to lie far to the East, somewhere in the ruined Kingdom of Astalan.  As he progresses east; Eldamar meets with a girl, whom he anticipates will be his travelling companion. This, however, is not to be the case. She is destroyed by forces of The Darkness, and eventually replaced with another girl... a warrior maid who accompanies him into Astalan. What they find there is dreadful. The first Darkling Horde has burnt and pillaged their way up from the south, and it seems, there is no life at all surviving in this blighted Realm.As dreadful as this appears; Eldamar and his companion cannot begin to imagine the horrors they will encounter as they travel south. It slowly dawns upon them that the first Horde was merely a diversion to test the strength of the Defenders of the Western lands. What few survivors remain in Astalan are widely scattered. Few, if any, males survive. The Kingdom is subjugated, and ruled by a despotic Tyrant Darkling. His minions prowl the land; seeking out and destroying any who show the slightest sign of resistance.