Orphaned and alone in the world, Arvin heads to the only place desperate enough to take him: the camp of a war chief. Though the elders in charge of assignments aren’t impressed with Arvin, the war chief himself, Evrick, finds his alchemy skills and unique way of solving problems interesting—and possibly useful.

With the help of his brilliant wife Visteria—who has goals of her own—Evrick plans to raise Vastard from its humble standings into a legitimate Fourteenth Kingdom, equal to Greenshade and Tyrrane in power. He sets Arvin to solve a mystery locked below the sand in an ancient underground ruin, a source of power unlike anything any of them have ever seen.

When Arvin and Visteria make a breakthrough, their celebration is cut violently short by the arrival of a vicious, unkillable race of beings that quickly ravage the human army: the Chromium. Now Arvin and Visteria must use all of their skills to thwart the rise of the Chromium or the Fourteenth Kingdom will fade before it ever has a chance to shine.

And the chromium will spread across the Thirteen Kingdoms destroying all in their wake, and possibly beyond. Their time is running out.

. .