Synopsis: From the Doubleday dust jacket front flap: "An intriguing fantasy about another world in which the elements control the actions of the people and are, in turn, controlled by the governing Council of twelve Nightmen. It's a strange eerie world, one of wraiths, familiars and magic powers, where the weather is running wild and the spells of Nightmen have suddenly become ineffective. Only Ryik, one of the twelve, recognizes the full implications of the disturbances in nature, and when he calls for new methods to control them his is condemned as a traitor and forced to flee. Ryik's journey leads him to Dorey, a young man with strange powers of his own, and together the two travel from present to past to future searching for an answer to the changes in the elements - changes which they slowly realize offer their only hope of survival."