The Waywater Wars are over--well, sort of. The depraved Verit has decreed that the government of Lyrium must send eleven children on the eleventh day of the eleventh month forever as tribute. An old prophecy says that a girl-child will save the ancient wizard 5_isen, held captive for a century in the evil city of Numorguh, and destroy Verit--is Annaline that girl? Will her boyfriend Maltan or the friend of her youth Luciano enlist as spies to help the girl they love? And most of all, will the wizard 5_isen return to Lyrium?