A powerful call has gone up to the Brethren, but no one knows who sent it. Upon the earth an empathic minstrel, a Changling, Kiema Buie pursues the unknown lands to escape the treacherousness of her heart. But a farther reaching past comes to seek her out, and in its need she will cross more disturbing boundaries and a man so determined for revenge he would take up any ally, from a thief to a magical chain. The Brethren must answer the call of need, but whose need is it? The minstrel, the farmer, or the past?