An orphaned boy escapes from the terrible dark cellar where he is apprenticed to grind spellstones, stones which can be shaped to wield great magical power. Escaping this shadowy world is punishable by death, but doesn' t explain why the most powerful man on the island, a man as dangerous and unstable as the spellstones themselves, is scared of the boy. He will go to any lengths to capture him . . . but this is the last thing he should try to do. A breathless chase leads to an incredible climax, when all the threads of the story converge.