The king is missing.<br>His people are trapped as the woods turn deadly. <br>Underground, the boy called Rescue has found an escape.<br><br>Hopes are failing across The Expanse. The forests, once beautiful, are now haunted and bloodthirsty. House Abascar's persecuted people risk their lives to journey through those predatory trees. They seek a mythic city - Abascar's last, best hope for refuge - where they might find the source of Auralia's colors.<br> <br>They journey without their king. During a calamitous attempt to rescue some of his subjects from slavery, Cal-raven vanished.<br><br>But his helper, the ale boy, falling through a crack in the earth, has discovered a slender thread of hope in the dark. He will dare to lead a desperate company up the secret river.<br><br>Meanwhile, with a dragon's help, the wandering mage Scharr ben Fray is uncovering history's biggest lie - a deception that only a miracle can repair.<br><br>Time is running out for all those entangled in The Auralia Thread. But hope and miracles flicker wherever Auralia's colors are found.