At fifteen, Sanyel is as good as dead. In defiance of strict tribal and religious law, Sanyel's shaman father has been covertly training her in the secret knowledge and rituals of the medicine man, sacred practices prohibited to females. Public exposure of that egregious transgression leads to Sanyel's banishment to the unforgiving Desert of Bones, the equivalent of a death sentence. Sanyel's best friend betrayed her, offering her up to brutish council chief Barkor in exchange for sparing the life of her boyfriend, who was accused of a capital offense. The savage desert cruelly tests Sanyel's will to survive and she begins to question her father's belief in portents that surrounded her birth. He had told her that these signs indicated a destiny that included leading her people in a time of great trouble. It was that belief that led him to train her so rigorously in the arts of the shaman and in the skills of the hunter/warrior. Sanyel has secrets. She possesses unusual talents known only to her and her father. She will need those abilities, for beyond the desert's edge lies a culturally and politically complex world that she did not know existed. Soldiers of a brutal, expansionist people have attacked and enslaved Sanyel's tribe, and when she spots Lillatta, the friend who betrayed her, held prisoner in a slave caravan, she vows to free her. With the companionship of Javen, a boy of undeniable physical attractions, along with Brilna, an unfocused yet invaluable fountain of knowledge, and the remarkable Izzy, a one-armed girl of intimidating presence and deadly skill, Sanyel will rise from desert exile to embark on a mission that is both perilous and deeply personal. Along the way she will find unexpected love and form stalwart bonds of friendship, uncover intriguing mysteries of an advanced, long vanished culture, and unearth clues that suggest she holds a more unique and powerful status in the world than she ever imagined.