Conway 12-1 is just weeks from Hydroseeker initiation when he'll join the elite squadron that scours the universe for viable water to sustain the spacenation Tsimmaon. At 17, Conway is already the strongest motorover rider among them, making him certain this is his calling. Then one failed mission changes everything.

Left for dead on the fabled Arid Planet with a life-altering injury, Conway is taken in by the citizens of Adamah, a community no one knew had survived the Dry Death. But these people have a secret: their water is deadly if you don't follow its rules, mutating the drinker into one of the gruesome creatures that prowl their woods. As a purifying Conduit, Adamah's young sovereign Selah is key to the water's safety and, Conway realizes, the key to the survival of his spacenation. If he can bring this revelation back home, he might still have a shot at being a Hydroseeker. He just needs to convince himself that betraying Selah is worth it, which gets harder the more he learns about her... and the more he discovers about his own people.