Centuries ago, the world fell. From the ashes rose a terrible new species-the Tangata. Now they wage war against the kingdoms of man. And humanity is losing. Recruited straight from his academy, twenty-year-old Lukys hopes the frontier will make a soldier out of him. But Tangata are massing in the south, and the allied armies are desperate. They will do anything to halt the enemy advance-including sending untrained men and women into battle. Determined to survive, Lukys seeks aid from the only man who seems to care: Romaine, the last warrior of an extinct kingdom. Meanwhile, the Queen's Archivist leads an expedition deep beneath the earth.