As Johnis, Silvie, Billos, and Darsal continue their quest for the four still missing Books of History, Billos makes a decision that has devastating consequences for himself and his companions, especially the devoted Darsal.

"Turning his back on all that he once believed, Billos does the forbidden and enters into a Book of History. He lands in a reality as foreign to him as water is to oil -- a place called Paradise, Colorado. He has strange new powers given to him courtesy of a mysterious figure known as Marsuvees Black. The chosen four have survived the desert, escaped the Black Forest, battled the Horde, and added a spirited refugee to their number. But nothing has prepared them for the showdown that Billos, the renegade, is luring them into." -- P. [4] of cover.