Finally, an uneasy peace has been achieved between the neighboring lands. But within Tobyn-Ser, where mages have ruled for a thousand years, civil war is brewing. Jaryd, a young, powerful gifted mage, fulfills an ancient prophecy that heralds war when he bonds to an eagle and becomes Eagle-Sage.

Assuming leadership of the Order of Mages and Masters, Jaryd struggles to maintain peace with Lon-Ser. But at the same time the ghost of the evil mage Sartol finds a way to bridge the gap between the realm of the dead and the living world, threatening to plunge both lands into chaos and war.

As the crisis comes to a head, another looms on the horizon. In Lon-Ser, Melyor, a street-smart woman with a magic of her own, has risen from the quads to become ruler. Struggling to hold the reins of power, she desires a lasting peace with Tobyn-Ser, but her policy makes her pariah in a land that has long been a killing field littered with the bodies of leaders who lost the support of those below them.

As civil war threatens to tear apart both countries, and war between the two seems imminent, it will be up to Jaryd, the Eagle-Sage, and Melyor, the fledgling leader of Lon-Ser, to forge a lasting peace between the disparate lands. But at what cost?