After a massive earthquake devastates the land, an evil spirit, trapped within a volcano for centuries, escapes its fiery prison with a vow to destroy all life. Jarlen, an unconventional Arboreal wizard, along with Tyraz, a Ferfolk warrior, and Chara, the last of the humans, track the ancient spirit from a cursed island in the north to the barren wastelands of the west, discovering its ability to combine living creatures with the dead. But their respective communities underestimate the danger, forcing the friends to stop the powerful creature before there is nothing left to save.

Lyche is Book Six in Legends of the Four Races, a series of nine high fantasy novels that form an Interlocking Matrix of six separate trilogies. Lyche may be read on its own, as the third book of The Transmuter Trilogy, or as the second book of The Necromancer Trilogy.