First, they're going there to meet a Beast Master, and Tani's mother had warned her about Beast Masters before she died -- they're pawns to High Command who throw away the lives of the animals on their teams. Also waiting on Arzor is a mysterious force, which the natives call Death-which-comes-in-the-Night, and which devours humans and mammals to the bones. To save the humans, and the natives whom she has befriended, Tani may need to learn the truth about Beast Masters, and the truth about herself.