DRAGONS HAVE RETURNED, BRINGING WITH THEM WAR AND DEATH. The Grand Master, Thandriel, has accepted the mantle of responsibility that comes with his bloodline, pledging to stand against Vulrund and his minions at all costs, even as those costs grow ever steeper. The Archmage, Lúmenor the Enlightened, continues his quest for answers. He is brought to towering summits and subterranean cities, ever hunted by The Enchantress whose bloodlust is fueled by vengeance. The Shepherd turned Sorcerer, Ishmír, continues his studies from his mundane master, Béowyn. He grows more powerful, but so do the forces that will stop at nothing to take his fledgling power. The Half-Breed Slave, Thradak Nuíl, fights both enemy and desert to protect his life, and those of his fellows as they are forced to choose between Freedom and Honor. Meanwhile, the Princess and the Bastard Knight struggle to accept their grim circumstances, the Daughter of Dragons seeks to help the helpless, the Outlaw Prince fights a war when no one else will, and the Warrior King desperately fights to protect the fragile peace that exists between his tribes. And Valyk the Assassin, the Herald of Vulrund himself, reads the words of Therus Fireborn. As he discovers the bonds of friendship, so too does he discover a dark fate and a blood-soaked legacy more complex than he could have dreamed. The pieces are set across the board of Iskar for a conflict unlike any that has come before, and when the smoke clears, will there be naught but ash in the wake of the Inferno?