Apt and eager Alissa is the only student of the last surviving master of magic. She easily shifts from human to raku, or beast counterpart, and has learned many advanced magics on her own. One afternoon, a tiny miscalculation sends her back in time 400 years within the Hold in which she lives. Now it is peopled by names and faces from stories the master has told of his and the Hold's history. As Alissa and a new, young teacher search for how to send her back, another problem arises: the primal living force behind her raku form is surfacing more often and without summoning. It is just a matter of time before Alissa will be overcome. Her transformation to raku will be permanent. It will be as if she had never existed. Cook's solid third novel about Alissa (after First Truth and Hidden Truth, both 2002) stands very well alone, showing as it does how many characters who exist in both times have grown and changed--or haven't.