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Alissa doesn't believe in magic. Her father's stories about the Hold, a legendary fortress where human Keepers learn magic from the enigmatic Maters, are just that - stories. But her mother insists that Alissa has inherited her father's magical ability, and so she must go to the Hold - the only place her talents can be trained.

On her way, she crosses paths with Strell, a wandering musician from the plains. And though Alissa is not sure she can trust a plainsman, Strell has something she needs - one of her father's old maps. Travelling together, they can reach the Hold before the snow sets in.

But they don't know that the Hold is nearly empty. Something is very wrong and someone believes that Alissa and Strell knows about a book called First Truth.

Alissa never believed in magic. But then she went to the Hold, a legendary fortress where human Keepers once learned magic from enigmatic Masters. Under the tutelage of the last surviving Master, Alissa discovered that she had inherited, her father's magical ability.

But the Hold, is ruled by Bailic, the renegade Keeper who seized the First Truth, a book of magic he will use to harness the might of the city of the dead and wreak a war of total devastation. The book has thwarted Bailic's every attempt to access it, while it continually calls to Alissa - who must summon all her will to resist it. For, if she gives in to the First Truth's ultimate power and knowledge, she will be utterly changed - and the man she loves could be lost to her forever...

When a shapeshifting student is transported back four centuries, she is in danger of being permanently changed into her dragon form, with no memory of her human life - or love.

Apt and eager Alissa is the only student of the last surviving master of magic. She easily shifts from human to raku, or beast counterpart, and has learned many advanced magics on her own. One afternoon, a tiny miscalculation sends her back in time 400 years within the Hold in which she lives. Now it is peopled by names and faces from stories the master has told of his and the Hold's history. As Alissa and a new, young teacher search for how to send her back, another problem arises: the primal living force behind her raku form is surfacing more often and without summoning. It is just a matter of time before Alissa will be overcome. Her transformation to raku will be permanent. It will be as if she had never existed.

Alissa is steadily advancing in her magical studies with the last surviving Master at the legendary Hold. But she's haunted by dreams - dreams revealing that other Masters have survived.

Alissa's dreams lead her to a distant island where she and a rescue party discover countless Masters, alive and part of a flourishing magical society. But instead of being welcomed, Alissa finds that she herself may need to be rescued. The Masters' leader, Keribdis, believes that she should be Alissa's teacher, whether Alissa likes it or not. When Alissa rebels, she endangers not only her magic but also her life.