A fitting conclusion to the series... And yes, I was right about the red herring. 
 Akkarin and Cery play a larger role in this book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them. I am not sure about Savara's character though - she seemed forcefully inserted. Sonea's character played out well towards the end. 
 The common thing about this trilogy is after I finished reading each book, I felt that the book dragged on and could be done with less. But, this I only felt after finishing the books, while reading them I just kept turning the pages.