Fairy tales make for unlikely terrorists. Niena and Tollan Cresthaven are the teenage children of a poor widower blacksmith working in the slums of Celwaith Tor. When an ominous cloaked figure that only Niena can see destroys the city square, Tollan is drafted into the Drüstanian army, shattering what is left of their family. Now, the siblings must face their mysterious heritage, overcome their differences, and reunite with their father in the midst of a burgeoning war between men and elves, and between science and sorcery . . .