Twenty years pass between the events in Book of Days and its sequels, Book of Thieves and Book of Dragons, but that doesnt mean everything was peaceful in Tiralainn in the meanwhile. In the first part of Book of Shadows, Rhyden Fabhcun is on an urgent mission: Gather together allies to the King and Queen and bring them to the royal city to help stop a brewing revolution. Rhyden finds more than he bargains for in a bittersweet homecoming to Edenvale, the pastoral community where he once lived. Here, he discovers old prejudices still run deep -- and new ones, deeper still. Can he protect Trejaeran Muirel, his oldest and dearest friend, from a town that hates and fears him?