Bren Cameron tries desperately to keep the peace when the starship Phoenix returns, causing dissension between human colonists, alien atevi, and the staff of the Phoenix, who are urging the atevi to build shuttle craft while instructing them in space.

Karigan G'ladheon, traveling through the Green Cloak forest toward home after being suspended from school for thrashing the heir of the lord-governor of the Mirwell province, is waylaid by an injured young rider who charges her with delivering a life-or-death message to the king.

More than thirty-five years ago, a young author surprised and enchanted readers with his first novel-the story of Fritti Tailchaser, a courageous tom cat in a world of whiskery heroes and villains, of feline gods and strange, furless creatures called M'an. The book was Tailchaser's Song, the author was Tad Williams. The legend was born.

Theo Vilmos' life is about to take a real turn for the worse. He is drawn from his home in Northern California into the parallel world of Faerie, for, unknown to him, he is a pivotal figure in a war between certain of Faerie's powerful lords and the rest of the strange creatures who live in this exotic realm.

It has been two years since the starship Phoenix left Alpha Station on a rescue mission to a faraway sector of space where over four thousand human spacers were under attack by a hostile alien race. Now, the Phoenix is almost home, having successfully rescued the stranded colonists through the combined negotiating talents of Bren Cameron-brilliant human paidhi to the atevi court, currently representing Tabini-aiji, the atevi ruler-and of Tabini's...

Briony Eddons, heir to the kingdom of Shadowmarch along with her twin brother Barrick, struggles to save the kingdom from the inhuman Qar who have begun to reach beyond the Shadowline after centuries of peace, while also trying to deal with Barrick's increasing strangeness, and other enemies from without and within.

Karigan G'ladheon, now an experienced member of the Green Riders, the magical messenger corps of the King of Sacoridia, has succeeded in transporting the evil spirit of Mornhaven into the future, buying time for the protective D'Yer Wall to be repaired, but with everyone concentrating on keeping tainted magic from the Blackveil Forest out of Sacoridia, they failed to notice a threat much closer to home.

Inda returns home from exile when he discovers that his homeland is about to be invaded and is pressed into service as the king's "royal shield arm" to defend his country against its most powerful and ancient enemy.