Twelve brave young men set out, led by the indomitable Blue Jay, seeking a better wintering land to the mysterious south. But the quest becomes an obsession that plunges the men--and the beautiful, enigmatic woman who joins them--into a lush, deadly forest inhabited by great spotted cats and "thunder lizards," against a man-eating people near the sea, and to a highland realm where human sacrifices are performed on a man-made mountain. To the young holy man Walks in the Sun, the journey is a test of his vision and his skill at casting the bones. For as he and his comrades face death, disease, and loss, they fight for survival--and a return to the People.
