In this long-awaited finale to the Dormia trilogy, the dreaded nursery rhyme comes to life at last as a "dark shadow tree" threatens to cause the "world's end." And who will stop it? Alfonso is now an ageling, Resuza and Hill are slaves, Bilblox appears to be a traitor, and Leif is shipwrecked on the edge of a forbidding forest. An ancient prophecy states that the tree can be destroyed, but the price must be paid in blood, and whoever tries faces...