Jahl and Donya journey to Loeban Desert to solve a mystery, but they don’t go together. Their two-year-old daughter is a handful around essence, and Donya believes it best to keep her home. So she sends Jahl off with her brother Rouen and a Martan’s Ferry guard. They should keep him out of trouble. But who’s going to keep Donya and Alriane out of trouble? A valuable flask of sand sends the two of them off to Loeban Desert to find Jahl. Who can Donya trust with the knowledge her daughter is wielding far beyond her years? Keeping Alriane’s developing skill secret is proving to be as difficult as crossing a desert. An elder sand walker and a young sand wielder: Jahl’s not sure his new companions are telling him the truth, but at least he didn’t talk Donya into traveling with him and bringing their daughter along. That would have been disastrous! Jahl must find out who’s behind the fluctuating essence and missing oasis junctions before a sand walker destroys him with a sand storm beast prepared to pound him into the wind-swept dunes. Learning Donya and Alriane are searching for him somewhere in the desert sands means he has far more to lose than his grimoire and sharded staff. He could lose his family. Buy the fourth book in the Standing Stone series because Jahl has never been good at avoiding trouble.