Dragons have returned to the world . . . Guided by the dragon Tintaglia, the serpents came from the sea to fight their way up the Rain Wild River to their ancestral hatching grounds. But the fledglings that emerge from the cocoons are a travesty of the dragons of old. Flightless and fractious, they soon become a danger to all and must be moved. Thymara, a Rain Wilder born with scales and claws, answers the call to become one of the dragon keepers to accompany the creatures upriver. Their target is the legendary Elderling city of Kelsingra. But no one knows if it even exists; and no one expects the dragon keepers to return, or even survive…