Reeling from her disastrous foray into the Pit, Birdie, the young Songkeeper, retreats into the mountains. But in the war-torn north, kneeling on bloodstained battlefields to sing the souls of the dying to rest, her resolve to accept her calling is strengthened. Such evil cannot go unchallenged.

Torn between oaths to protect the Underground runners and rescue his friend from the slave camps, Ky Huntyr enlists Birdie’s aid. Their mission to free the captives unravels the horrifying thread connecting the legendary spring, Artair’s sword, and the slave camps. But the Takhran’s schemes are already in motion. Powerful singers have arisen to lead his army—singers who can shake the earth and master the sea—and monsters rampage across the land.

As Leira falters on the verge of defeat, the Song bids her rise to battle, and the Songkeeper must answer.

I jumped right into this story expecting to be a bit confused (I grabbed book three instead of book one), but decided to press on anyway. I felt like the author did a good job of introducing me to what was going on (even coming into the trilogy late), though it would have been nice to have a list of characters or something like that. Even without it, I was able to follow.

That said, I think the book could have been significantly shorter. Nothing really happens for the first 100 pages, and even after that there were some beautiful descriptions with some plot summaries thrown in. I wanted to be sucked in and expected the third book in the series to be really intense, but I found it easy to skim. It really picked up when I got to sections 4&5.