Six years after a conflict that extinguished allmagelight, the realm of Eiden Myr is in chaos. Wilding weather destroys crops. Drought bakes some regions while others are flooded; mountains quake, poisoned rivers rise; disease and pestilence spread.
In a dying trader town, three little girls fight to protect a secret that could cost them their lives, while a young lad-of-all-crafts finds that local murders are only the first clue in a stunning conspiracy. In the far north, the remnants of the realm's warders struggle to replace magecraft with science. In the far south, a military race is remembering its beginnings and rousing from its stupor. Along the eastern shore, a tight band of guerrilla fighters, posted to repel invasion, prepares to battle for control of the disaster-ridden realm--while one woman, a disgraced soldier, summons the courage to defy them all.
And on a remote, windswept island, a new breed of scholar strives to plumb the mysteries of ancient texts before they crumble in the absence of the wardings that preserved them--and before the realm crumbles for want of the knowledge they contain.
Which of them is the binder destined to reshape the shattered world?