Marela's travel group has mysteriously vanished in the forest. Alone and afraid, she stumbles upon an isolated cliff top keep, the home of the wizard AErin. Over the snowy, winter months Marela comes to learn that magic makes more sense than she thought, and there's more to AErin than meets the eye.
By the time spring arrives AErin and Marela have wed and she joins him on his yearly jaunt throughout the kingdom, but what happened to her travel group? Even AErin doesn't have the answer. But soon, distractions, like a Roc falling out of the sky, and a dragon that needs slaying, divert them from their search for answers, until Marela is kidnapped.