Two years have passed since Jair Ohmsford aided his sister Brin in her quest to destroy the evil living tome known as the Ildatch. When word comes that a single page of the book, covered in lines pulsing with dark energy, survived Brin's magic, Jair must take up the fight alone. But Jair's gift is not the equal of his sister's, and as he steals into the prison fortress of Dun Fee Aran--where he almost died in his first foray against the Ildatch--he has nothing to rely upon but the power of illusion. Illusion, and the memory of an ally who died to defend him.