Jarred is a young boy who has grown up among his mother's peaceful desert people. While Jarred loves his mother, he longs to know the history of his father, a journeyman who left years earlier, promising to return for his wife and infant son. A broken promise but a token left behind—an amulet for Jarred that he has worn always. Some say it brings more than a bit of good luck his way, for no harm has ever befallen the boy. When Jarred comes to manhood, he decides to journey into the world to seek his fortune and perhaps along the way find news of his father. In his travels he will come to a place so unlike his own as to boggle his mind—a place of immense tracts of waterways and marshes, where the very air seems to teem with magic and a people surrounded by creatures fey and not, with enough strange customs and superstitions to make his head swirl. And to the beautiful Lilith, a woman who will haunt his dreams and ultimately steal his heart...who perhaps can provide a key to his heritage.

The beautiful maiden Jewel is the center of her parent's joy. She is the embodiment of their true love and she has grown up surrounded by peace and love in abundance. Jewel's world cruelly shatters when her parents are suddenly killed and she and her uncle Eoin are forced to flee. Leaving the only home she has ever known, Jewel learns that her parents, caught in a tangle of a tragic prophecy, had hidden in the marshland for years to protect the secret knowledge that Jewel is the last of the line of the Janus Jaravhor, the dreaded sorcerer of Strang. That she might be the one person in the world who could unlock the mysterious Dome that is told to hold all of Janus' secrets. And that King Maolmordha now knows of her existence and will stop at nothing to find her. Pain and loss follow and Jewel must make her way alone. Rescued by a traveling band of Weathermasters, exalted magicians who control the heavens for the rich and powerful, she is taken to High Darioneth and is accepted into this tightly knit community. And not just accepted, but loved, for one of the young weathermasters beheld her and his heart was lost. Jewel is left with the promise of true love and a powerful secret. But which path will she choose—and who will suffer if she makes the wrong choice?

Astarial is a beautiful young woman, the darling of the Weathermaster clan. Yet there is an air of sadness that surrounds this beauty, for Astarial lost her mother to an evil enchantment and her father soon after when grief engulfed him and he set off on a quest to find a way to free his love. While she has want for naught Astarial keenly feels the loss of her parents. Keener still, Astarial feels the loss of mortal life, for while she loves her father's people dearly she knows she is not one of them. Her mother was descended from the dreaded sorcerer of Strang, and in Astarial's blood lies a mighty power waiting for her to use for good or ill. In his travels her father was rendered near-immortal and this dubious gift was passed to Astarial. Now near adulthood, Astarial is at a crossroads. She can stay in the safety of all she has known, hide from the world and choose to use her powers in small ways to do small good. Or she can embark on a quest to fully realize the power that surges in her blood and perhaps undo the evil that her ancestors wreaked. Her decision will reshape the world.

Weapons glitter, men's voices are raised in battle-song and bright banners crack and flap in a sharp breeze; armies of steel and bronze are marching to war as the ruthless king of the southern realm executes his plan to seize dominion over the Four Kingdoms. With Tir's most powerful protectors slain by treachery and the defenders scattered, it appears nothing can stand in the tyrant's way. Asrāthiel, summoner of storms, called 'Weatherwitch' by her wayward, eldritch companion, aids the defenders as best she can, but the invading armies are pushing further north and it seems that all is lost . . . Until a new peril unexpectedly looms; a far more dangerous and deadly menace that threatens not merely the balance of power, but the entire human race . . . 'Dart-Thornton conjures up her world of Tir in the luminous yet hard-edged manner of Jack Vance and Mary Gentle' Washington Post