Something stirs, above and below. In the aftermath of the Parandor Arena, dragonbound brothers Shan Goldtree and Tessen Lim have become separated for only the third time in their young lives. In Bacra's capital city, the warlock Shan struggles not to fall either to his own mind or to the pain of the Spellkeeper completion rituals that are being inflicted upon him by the High King himself. To the south, safe in the Moonlight Guardian's sanctuary, Tessen finds himself overwhelmed by the emergence of his own innate magic.Far to the west, mage Benny Vale is liberated after two years locked a decrepit prison for the magic-skilled. As much as she wishes to embrace the return of her magic and her new freedom, her goal is singular--to reunite with her missing daughter. Together with a quarrelsome group of allies, Benny must traverse the inhospitable deserts and battlefields of the Bacran Southwest to find the beloved child who may not remember her.Meanwhile, a new power rises from deep beneath the surface world. After leading a slave rebellion, young Hael must guide her surviving Uldru to The Above before the dangers of the subterranean tunnels claim any more of her people. Will she find the fabled surface world and a new home within it, or will the Uldru of the Vetarex hive be lost forever to a darkness not even the little magics can illuminate?