Gaborn has managed to drive off Raj Ahten, but Ahten is far from defeated. Striking at far-flung cities and fortresses and killing dedicates, Ahten seeks to draw out the Earth King from his seat of power, in order to crush him. But as they weaken each other's forces in battle, the armies of an ancient and implacable enemy issue forth from the very bowels of the Earth. . .

The Earth King, Gaborn Val Orden, has roamed to the ends of the known world to preserve his people, but the life-draining powers he has embraced have finally taken their toll. His death leaves his young son Fallion at the mercy of his enemies. But Fallion is no ordinary prince, with no ordinary enemies, but is a reincarnation of an immensely powerful immortal. Known as the torch-bearer, Fallion is fated to engage with an ancient evil across the many ages of his existence. Now, without his father's protection, powerful supernatural forces will seek to prevent him waking to his full powers - and the land of the Runelords will become their battlefield.

The stars fall from heaven and the very earth trembles in pain. With Gaborn's kingdom of Mystarria in ruins, four powerful kings march to claim its spoils, even as a vast army of reavers sallies forth from the underworld, intending to put an end to mankind. In one last-ditch effort to heal the earth, the wizardborn Averan leads the Earth King, Gaborn Val Orden, far below the surface to the Lair of Bones, to face the leader of the reaver hordes. There Gaborn must confront an ancient evil - before the world is torn apart. . .

Reeling from the battle at Carris, the young king Gaborn Val Orden findst hat he has lost the powers that let him protect his people. As he struggles to rid his land of reavers, he discovers that the creatures are more resourceful and terrifying than even he imagined. Desperate for any weapon that will aid him in this battle, all of his hopes come to rest upon the nine-year-old girl, Averan, the Wizardborn apprentice to the earth wizard Binnesman. Despite her fears, he must convince her to lead him in battle against the reaver lord of the underworld. Meanwhile the ailing Wolf Lord, Raj Ahten, learns that a reaver horde is decimating his own homeland. There, he confronts his enemy, and finds that he must choose to strip himself of all humanity or face ultimate defeat . . .

Fallion and Jaz, sons of the Earth King Garborn, have returned from their long exile. Yet they have arrived under cover of darkess, fugitives in their own kingdom. There seems little left to save, but Fallion's heritage has given him a powerful calling to heal not just this land, but all lands - if he can master the flameweaver's talent that threatens to consume him. But he has an ancient enemy, skilled in the ways of evil, and she initiated the catastrophe that doomed the worlds of men. Many ages ago, a perfect world was split into fragments, and each fragment was but a distorted image of this golden age. If Fallion could but unite all these splinters, he could recreate the One True World of Legend, and heal the sickness in the realm.