LANDO is a 16-year-old mage cadet on the arid planet of Dragon Scarp, home to sentient and increasingly hostile dragons. There is talk of a new human exodus, and he steals a unique but temporarily blank book that may aid in that project. It is in his possession when he saves a dragonling from a vicious slaughter and takes off for the northern mountains to seek sanctuary for himself and the hatchling. On the journey, he senses the presence of his twin JAQ who was kidnapped by corsairs eight years earlier. Jaq mourns his friend ULLA killed by a space dragon--a death for which he feels responsible and for which her father seeks revenge.