Roads of Madness

Emily Stanton was sick. They all knew it was a matter of time before she became too sick to walk, and after that -- well, it didn't bear thinking about. Walking into the night was their only option. The sickness was worsening by the hour, and by morning she might not be able get to her feet. They had to make it to safety soon. But where was it safe? The city? Their old island?

Roads of Madness pits Hal and his friends against an enemy worse than dragons -- people! But not just ordinary people. Driven crazy by a terrible, unseen infection more than a decade before, and eking out a semblance of life in the bleak, deserted streets ever since, the only way for these people to survive is to hunt and scavenge. Their skin still burns and itches after all these years, a suffering that just won't end. The biosuited military calls them scrags. Marked by lesions and scars, they're easy to recognize... and best avoided.

Hal, Robbie, Abigail, and a very sick Emily know their island is farther along the coast, just beyond the city. There they hope to find a way back home. But they have a long road to travel; the city stands in their way and Emily might not last that long, for she carries with her a sickness of a different kind. Could things be any more dire?

Unfortunately, yes. Under normal circumstances, the journey would be fairly simple. As dangerous as the scrags are, they're no match for a fire-breathing dragon, an ogre, and a naga. And there's no way they could catch a nimble faeire! But magic has fled the land after the recent phoenix rebirth, and the shapeshifters find they can no longer transform...

The first three books of the series formed a trilogy, a three-part story that wrapped up at the end of Mountain of Whispers. Then Lake of Spirits started a new chain of events for the shapeshifters and left some of the children in a terrible situation. ROADS OF MADNESS continues the story...

Book 5 of the Island of Fog series.