Meanwhile, across the desert in the mountain city of Aerillia, the Winged Folk are dying in Eliseth’s unnatural winter, which is spreading across the world.—Blacktalon, the corrupt High Priest, claims he can turn aside the deadly cold and demands to be wedded to the Princess Raven, heir to the throne. Raven flees, heading south across the desert.
Harihn’s band reach Dhiammara—a solitary mountain in the desert where a mysterious portal opens in the rock, snatching Aurian away. When she cannot be found, Harihn abandons her companions. Aurian’s loss brings home to Anvar how much he loves her. With Shia’s help he finds the portal, and he is reunited with Aurian. They emerge in the abandoned city of the Dragonfolk, and discover Raven. Forral’s ghost leads Aurian to the last Dragon, who tells her that she is the One for whom the Sword of Flame was forged, but first she must win the Staff of Earth. Aurian succeeds and now holds one of the Artifacts.—The Mage is reunited with her comrades and Yazour, who has left the Prince and returned with horses. Eliseth creates a lethal sandstorm to slay them.—Aurian’s powers have vanished due to her pregnancy, but with the help of the Staff, she and Anvar defeat Eliseth and cross the desert safely. But Miathan is not done with them, for he has learned to free his spirit from the fetters of his body and send it abroad to work mischief....
Aurian and her companions find sanctuary in the forest beyond the desert, where Harihn and his troops are also encamped. The Prince has met with the roving spirit of Miathan and made an unholy bargain, allowing the Archmage to occupy his body at need. Miathan also enlists the aid of Black-talon, who has poisoned Raven’s mother. Harihn seduces Raven, persuading her to betray the Mages. She offers to guide them across the mountains to the Tower of Incondor, where the Archmage and Blacktalon have laid an ambush.
Across the mountains, in the lands of the Xandim Horse-folk, a Seer receives a vision on the winds. Chiamh, the despised, reclusive Windeye of the Xandim, discovers powers of evil reaching out from the north toward two Bright Ones beyond the mountains. At the risk of destroying his tribe, he knows he must aid them in their fight against darkness.
The Xandim are shape-shifters, existing in either human or equine form. They capture Parric and his companions and sentence them to death. Chiamh rescues them with the help of Basileus, a Moldan—the living mind and soul of the Wynd-veil mountain.
Vannor, now settled with his rebels in the Vale, under D’arvan’s unseen guidance, hears that his daughter Zanna has left the Nightrunner hideout and returned to Nexis. He sets off to search for her with the veteran warrior Hargorn, but is captured by Miathan.
Aurian’s band reach the Tower of Incondor and are attacked by Blacktalon’s Skyfolk and Harihn’s troops. Shia, at the Mage’s urging, flees with the Staff of Earth. Yazour, though wounded, escapes. Aurian is imprisoned in the tower to await the birth of her son, whom Miathan plans to kill. Anvar is taken to the Skyfolk city of Aerillia as a hostage. Yazour is found by Schiannath, a Xandim outlaw exiled from his homeland with his sister Iscalda, condemned by the Herdlord Phalihas to exist solely in her equine shape: a white mare. Using the Staff to communicate, Shia convinces Schiannath to help the wounded warrior.
Raven is taken back to Aerillia. Blacktalon plans to wed her to consolidate his power, but first he destroys her wings. She attempts to kill herself, but her life is saved by the physician Elster and her apprentice Cygnus, formerly a secret supporter of the High Priest.
In Nexis, Hargorn is wounded by the troops of Pendral, a cruel, corrupt merchant, and is rescued by Jarvas, who runs a refuge for destitute Nexians.—Hargorn is cared for by the physician Benziorn and his assistant Emmie, who finds two strays—a starving white dog and a boy, Grince. She takes them back to the refuge, along with the dog’s litter of puppies.
To reach Aerillia, Shia must cross the lands of her own people. Helped by the old cat Hreeza and the young male Khanu, she wins her way through. The two others join her.
Remana, mother of Yanis, the Nightrunner leader, goes with her son and Zanna’s friend Tarnal to Nexis, to find Vannor and his daughter. Seeking the help of Jarvas, they row up-river by night and make their way into Nexis via the sewers, emerging to find Jarvas’s refuge under attack by Pendral’s soldiers.—Remana helps the refugees escape through the sewers, taking them back to the smuggler hideout at Wyvernesse, but Grince is left behind. Benziorn remains to search for him, while Yanis and Tarnal stay in Nexis to find Zanna.—Vannor is captured by Miathan and imprisoned within the Mages’ Tower. He discovers that Zanna is already there, in the guise of Eliseth’s maid.—At the request of the wounded Yazour, Schiannath climbs the Tower of Incondor and finds Aurian. She refuses to be rescued while Anvar is a hostage, but agrees to signal the Xandim for his assistance when her child is born.—Chiamh has rescued Parric and his companions, but Meiriel, now dangerously insane, has vanished into the mountains. To gain the help of the Xandim, Parric challenges Phalihas for leadership or the tribe and becomes Herdlord.—The Windeye traps Phalihas in his equine form, and acting on Chiamh’s Vision, Parric takes a troop of warriors to Aurian’s rescue.
Anvar has been imprisoned by the Skyfolk in a cave high on a cliff. Shia makes a near-impossible climb to bring him the Staff, and he uses it to pass through the mountain to the city of Aerillia. The Mage slays Blacktalon, but the Moldan of Aerillia, who wants the Staff, causes an earthquake and traps him underground. Unable to attack in her earthly form, the Moldan transports Anvar to another dimension—the Elsewhere of such elemental beings as the Moldan and the Phaerie. Here she takes the form of a monster, and attacks.—Miathan, in Harihn’s body, attacks Aurian, who goes into labor. Wolves come to her rescue and Harihn is slain by the pack leader—and as Miathan’s curse takes effect, Aurian’s child assumes the shape of a wolf cub. When Parric and Chiamh reach the tower, the Windeye frees Iscalda from her equine shape, and Parric, as Herdlord, pardons Schiannath the outlaw. Aurian journeys with Chiamh to Aerillia, in search of Anvar.
Hellorin, Lord of the Phaerie, discovers the presence of the Staff of Earth in his realm, and with Aurian’s mother goes to Anvar’s rescue. The Moldan is destroyed, and Hellorin sends Anvar Between the Worlds to the Timeless Lake, to seek the Harp of Winds. Anvar evades the traps set by the Cailleach, guardian of the Harp, and claims the Artifact for his own. He returns to Aerillia and finds Aurian, and at last they affirm their love. Using the Artifacts to break the deadly power of Eliseth’s winter, they bring spring back to the world.
Aurian’s companions journey to Aerillia, where Raven is crowned Queen. The Mages rejoice in their new love and the claiming of another Artifact, unaware that jealous eyes watch them. Cygnus is convinced that the Harp should be returned to the Skyfolk.
To Nereni’s dismay, Eliizar’s fear of magic convinces him to return south with some of the Winged Folk and the remainder of Harihn’s soldiers and servants, to set up an independent colony in the forest close to the desert.
Reluctantly, they say farewell to the Mages.
In the North, the Nexian refugees shelter with the Night-runners. Back in Nexis, young Grince and the surviving pup from the white dog’s litter are hiding in the deserted Grand Arcade. For the sake of his beloved dog, he embarks on a life of thievery.
In Aerillia, Raven is facing difficulties in her new role of Queen. Her only allies are Elster and Aguila, Captain of the Guard. Skua, the new High Priest, is plotting against her, together with Sunfeather, one of Aerillia’s warrior elite—and Cygnus, who still wants the Harp of Winds for himself and plots to prevent the Skyfolk from assisting Aurian in her quest.