Magic provides peace and prosperity in Coronnan. Dragons are the source of magic. So why is someone killing the dragons? Jaylor has been given his journeyman magician's quest to "Go see an invisible dragon," by his mentor, Senior Magician Baamin. He dutifully throws magic spells to transport objects, communicate over long distances, and overhear secret thoughts. But he cannot explain to his professors at the University of Magicians how he does it. He fails miserably when he joins in the communal spells that allows the University to impose ethics and morality on any single (rogue) magician. He is considered the least likely to succeed in this vital task to find and protect the last breeding female in the Nimbus of Dragons. His quest takes him to a remote corner of the land where he stumbles across a young and frightened witch, Brevelan. She has been driven out of several villages. She saved a man's life, but had to leave him crippled, she helped a woman through a dangerous labor and delivery, but the child is female, not the male the father desired. The crops succumbed to drought so it must be her fault. Together, she and Jaylor forge a new form of magic that helps them find the dragon. But are they strong enough to stop the rogue magician determined to bring down the kingdom for his own personal power and destroy communal magic once and for all? And why has the dragon protected and nurtured a curious golden wolf that clings to Brevelan and protects her from their mutual enemy?