Two years after the events chronicled in The Wishsong of Shannara, Kimber Boh finds Jair Ohmsford working in his parents' inn while they are away.

The first night Jair is there the shade of Allanon visits him and tells him that he must travel to the lair of the Mwellrets, Dun Fee Aran, and destroy the remaining page of the Ildatch before its power grows.

Jair struggles with his own fears of going back to that evil place where he was once imprisoned by the lizard-like Mwellrets, with their hypnotizing eyes.

Once they arrive, Jair slips medication into Cogline and Kimber Boh's ale, which causes them to fall into a deep sleep, so that he may enter the fortress alone, and spare them harm.

This endows him with Garet Jax's fighting abilities, allowing him to slaughter the Mwellrets and destroy the Ildatch page.