Coryn aef Arlean flees through scorching desert mountains to escape his pursuers. After a good deed caught him in a trap of rock and sand with three Sisters of Leoht, five children, no water, surrounded by desert goblins, with no way out it's time to find the courage to protect more than himself. He was already on one mission: a message he should have delivered over six years ago. Now the ex-soldier had landed himself another. It never occurred to Coryn that he would care for these people. That they might become the family he had lost years ago. There are more than desert goblins among the sandstorms of this waste.