An innocent childhood friendship is twisted by a dark fixation. Jealousy leads a young man to betray the girl he wants to win and drives a powerful mage to risk his sanity and his soul for the sake of love.
Twenty years after the Dragon Burnings decimated humankind, the unexpected and unwelcome arrival of her mother sets Tinna's teeth on edge. When her own daughter disappears, and invasion threatens her world, Tinna faces a choice no mother should have to make. If she, and she alone, can save her people and their way of life from the brutality of the Thran, what will become of Avria? Can she trust a man she hardly knows to track down the ones who have stolen her child?
Once again, Tinna finds herself at the mercy of the enigmatic Keepers. Wise but indecipherable, remote yet manipulative, they demand enormous sacrifice while offering little in the way of practical guidance. One child lost and another one still unborn, charged with shaping the remnants of a people who crave only peace into an army capable of withstanding the berserk and deadly Thran, Tinna must summon all of the might remaining to her.
Can she stand up to her own doubt and trepidation? Must she forsake her own daughter to wage a war she never wanted? Dare she give herself over to the will of the Keepers, knowing they want far more of her than a mother should have to give?