Of Blood and Serpents. After surviving the fall of the Five Islands, Kiara and a small group of followers are strewn on the shores of the mainland. Beset with illness they consume an unlikely cure that will bind them together to Kiara in ways none of them could have imagined. Here in the sands of the Haj they will encounter the first of many enemies. Not all of them will survive, and Kiara will understand what it is to be part of a family where blood is stronger than steel.