Haunted by her past, Lee Vawn-Cory joins a trek on horseback to explore an unsettled region of the planet Carico. Nothing like hooves on the ground to get to know a place. Then her horses show up at Seth Reilly’s place without her. He sets out to find her, dreading all the things that can go wrong in the wilds. But what he finds is beyond his wildest imaginings. Captured by non-human castaways, he is taken to a hidden enclave where he discovers Lee already being held. It’s not as simple as escaping. The future of Carico depends on finding a path to peaceful contact between the stranded castaways and the planet’s human colonists.

The planet Carico is short on technology and long on wide-open spaces. When Seth Reilly returns home to Under Rim, it isn’t the peaceful village he remembers. Trouble is in the wind, and the new girl in town, Annalee, is at the heart of it. Seth and Annalee cross Jerdix, an outlaw who tortures Seth with a device prohibited throughout the Interstellar Coalition. Unable to cope, Seth flees to a lonely camp where he becomes obsessed with taming a horse as damaged as he is. Annalee follows, determined to help him. But Jerdix is still out there. Can Seth and Annalee survive Jerdix’ threat and find the help they both need to heal?

Haunted by her past, Lee Vawn-Cory joins a trek on horseback to explore an unsettled region of the planet Carico. Nothing like hooves on the ground to get to know a place. Then her horses show up at Seth Reilly’s place without her. He sets out to find her, dreading all the things that can go wrong in the wilds. But what he finds is beyond his wildest imaginings. Captured by non-human castaways, he is taken to a hidden enclave where he discovers Lee already being held. It’s not as simple as escaping. The future of Carico depends on finding a path to peaceful contact between the stranded castaways and the planet’s human colonists.