A winged darkness swooped low over the city, swift as a sudden squall, on the slope a stunted tree twisted with the wind. There was a noise which might have been thunder or the booming of immense pinions. Whether the shadow was cloud or creature Nathan couldn't tell, but he felt the icy chill of its advent, and the wind that tried to tear the tree from its roots whirled his thought away, out of the city, out of the dream, into the gentle oblivion of sleep.When Nathan Ward sleeps his dreams take him to other worlds, where strange things feel familiar and familiar things feel strange - like most people's dreams, but Nathan's dream-worlds are real and his nightmares have teeth¿The last time he dreamed, Nathan found himself trapped in Arkatron - a city at the end of time, in a dying world - and he almost died there. Now, Nathan has begun to dream of another place far removed from the harsh, bustling technology of Arkatron. This place is a hollow shell, haunted by cursed shadows and fear.Nathan has a task to complete, impressed upon him by malevolent will and a world's agony. A quest which began with the discovery of a strange green stone cup, but will only be completed when all the missing pieces of a great spell are brought together, and a terrible sacrifice is made.