Silas has fled with the broken Chalice of Önd, forcing the companions to flee into the surrounding forest, pursued and hunted by the remaining angry swarms of hobs. But their escape is slow as Isolde falls ill; the injured hand she plunged into the Chalice during the ceremony is infected and the disease is spreading rapidly, transforming her flesh into the scales of a hob. Sick with worry, Rollo decides to go after the chalice, hoping to reverse the spell, but Leaf insists on returning to aid...

The Laws of the five magics were being set aside. First to go were those of the high art of sorcery. Then true magic, upon which the commerce of all Arcadia depended, had been voided. And now even thaumaturgy, the engineering knowledge of the world, was under attack. Jemidon had traced the trouble to Melizar, the strange, cold being who had seemingly appeared from nowhere. Somehow, Melizar could alter or negate the laws that had always existed by using a mysterious metagamic - something which...

Caspar, Brid and Hal have traced the lost runes in the Yew Forest in the heartland of Farona. Etched on the bottom of a cauldron, the runes tell the location of the Druid's Egg, an object of such fearful power it has long been hidden in distant lands.