"A generation ago, Constantine Madden came close to achieving what no magician had ever achieved: the ability to bring back the dead. He didn't succeed . . . but he did find a way to keep himself alive, inside a young child named Callum Hunt. Now Call is one of the most feared and reviled students in the history of the Magisterium, thought to be responsible for a devastating death and an ever-present threat of war. As a result, Call has been imprisoned...

Thirteen-year old Barclay and his fellow Lore Keeper apprentices are excited to travel to the Desert to study at the respected University of Al Faradh, but when dangerous, unnatural sandstorms and a magical library appear, more than their exams are at stake.