When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.
Will has always found Rangers frightening. With their dark cloaks and mysterious ways, they have the power to become invisable, and Will soon finds he has many skills of a Ranger.
Hal, Stig, and the other outcasts do not have the size and strength of the Skandians, but when they face off against the Wolves and the Sharks in an ultimate race for survival, they hope that their courage and cunning are enough to help them win in a game that everyone seems to think is a matter of life and death.
Hal and the Herons, having won the Brotherband competition, are accused of stealing the Skandians' most sacred artifact and face challenges on their journey to reclaim it and clear their names.
After escaping slavery, Evanlyn is taken captive by a Temujai warrior, leaving Will to use his Ranger training to find her, despite being outnumbered by an enemy scouting party and the entire Temujai army.
Halt, Will, and Horace set out for Hibernia, where a quasi-religious group, the Outsiders, is sowing confusion and sedition, and they find that secrets from Halt's past may hold the key to restoring order before the last kingdom is undermined.
