Magic lessons are starting up for Brian: a much-needed distraction from the tragedy over the summer. But the dead rising from their graves is perhaps too much of a distraction. Now Brian and his friends must work out what is happening and why. Does it have something to do with the Stone of Surzaal, a fabled emerald with the power to grant near-immortality? Who is the six-fingered man? And what exactly is the 'silver dragon'?