Shale is proclaimed Cloudmaster, but he is still under threat. Watergiver priests plot his downfall, his wife cannot be trusted and his own brother wants him dead. The one person he trusts--and needs in order to bring the rain--is forced to leave the land ...Terelle, compelled by Watergiver magic to follow Russet, is betrayed and imprisoned by his family. If she cannot return to Shale's side, the Quartern will thirst and its people will die. Kaneth, once a rainlord of the cities, is now a leader of the Reduner rebellion--but it's a battle he and his men cannot win alone. The many forces that must unite to save the Quartern are separated by distance and sundered by ideology. Can anyone--or anything--unite them in time?