When mage Magdala Gallus gets suspended from Magisterium for making explosives instead of focusing her rare alchemical skills on more productive pursuits, her mother ships her off to her uncle, the absent-minded but brilliant Lord Kalan, as punishment.  Hard at work creating an instrument capable of converting magic, her uncle soon draws Magdala into his quest for a dragon scale—the only thing that can prove his theory that magic is the same for everyone.  However, as Magdala, Lord Kalan, and Lord Kalan’s unusual apprentice, Dwayne, soon realize, it’s an impossible mission. With bandits populating the region where the dangerous creatures live and a pair of mercenaries who aren’t who they seem, it will take more than their magic to find and kill a dragon . . . and stay alive.