Tay is trying to settle into his new life with a group of strangers who call themselves his family. Even Willow has deserted him. Then he meets Wisp, and things look up – until a shadow assassin attempts to kill him, Cale traps his shadow in a gem and the only way to save him appears to be a mad wizard. What can possibly top all that? Meeting a hundred-thousand-year-old king and his dragon friend, the very dragon on whom the entire city is built.