Zac has never tasted freedom. He has never had a future, and has never had a past. In a small mining camp on the fringe of Ascadell, he lives for his fellow slaves, and they see him as their leader even though he is still young, just eighteen. One day everything changes - his mining camp is destroyed by raiders. Slavemasters and fellow slaves alike are murdered. Zac escapes, leaving behind the ashes of everything he has ever known.The raiders are part of a larger plot to bring the vast kingdom of Ascadell to destruction. Their leader, Bareloth, is a trapped immortal vying for freedom.

He creates Soulbane, an enchanted disease that infiltrates dreams, to transform everyday people into an army of vicious Banes. Ascadell needs a hero.Zac never thought of himself as a hero, but as he struggles to come to terms with his own freedom, he finds himself fighting for an entire nation's.