The Sunerlies—home to convicts, rebels, and the unwanted refuse of society—or so it has traditional been. Even now it is a land where, for the law-abiding population, the price of safety is eternal vigilance.
 
For Doyce’s and Jenret’s sixteen-year-old twins, Jenneth and her brother Diccon, the very name is a summons to exotic adventure.  So when Jenret proposes taking them—and any friends who wish to make the journey—along on a business trip to the Sunerlies, the twins can hardly contain their excitement. The only thing more thrilling is the newfound bond Jenneth has made with the ghatten Pw’eek and Diccon with her sister ghatten Kwee.
 
Yet almost from the start the journey seems overshadowed with bad luck—or evil intent. Though Doyce, newly retired from the position of Seeker General, has come along in the hopes of restrengthening her emotional ties with her husband Jenret, they seem to be caught in a kind of private war neither can control. And before the party even sets sail, “accidents” begin to occur. First Doyce is thrown by her mount. Next a campfire explosion menaces Jenneth, Diccon, and the other children.  Yet despite these ill omens, they are determined not to turn back.
 
But the real disaster strikes at sea, when a storm sweeps Jenneth and Pw’eek overboard. Desperate to find his lost twin, Diccon has no way of knowing what the worst of all of them still lies ahead—in the Sunerlies, where a once-vanquished and long-vanished enemy waits—a fanatic determined to eradicate Resonates and Seekers alike…