Publisher's Synopsis
Tyen is teaching mechanical magic at a school respected throughout the worlds. News arrives that the formidable ruler of all worlds, long believed to be dead, is back and enforcing his old laws - including the one forbidding schools of magic. As teachers and students flee, Tyen is left with no home and no purpose - except the promise he made to Vella, the sorcerer imprisoned in a book. Now he must decide what he is willing to do to free her.