Quilt, Book and Bard

Tory, Alex and Marina make it to the Cloud-Jumper domain. On their walk in, they meet Seth, who finds a place for them to sleep for the night. While they're sitting around the fire, Seth takes out an instrument that Tory recognizes. He plays an interesting tune, which Marina finds annoying.

Neal and Jake escape from Garten. While on the run, they meet a farmer who helps them out. Jake is sick with snowcold, and Neal keeps him safe by lying to the farmer about who they are. They leave as soon as they can. The farmer points them in the direction of the Cloud-jumpers. Micah, King of the Cloud-Jumpers, meets them at the tree line of the Cloud-Jumper domain. After ordering that Jake be taken to the domain's Tree, Micah asks Neal what happened two hundred years before. Neal reluctantly tells him what he remembers of the last days of the battle. Micah wants to help, but Neal decides to let himself be recaptured by Garten.

Trying to piece things together, Neal again thinks back two hundred years. While protecting the castle of Westover, Neal finishes a picture of a village and a man with an ox-cart full of fruit. With Marina's help, Tory gets to the Tower where she meets Alex. The two of them 'enjoy' a dinner with Alex's mother. Alex decides that he and Tory should continue together. As part of his preparation of their journey, Alex gives Tory a knife for her own protection. Tory introduces Alex to Marina, and Alex is smitten. Marina tells Tory and Alex that the three of them must get to Delphic's city.

Tory asks Bryna where they are going and learns they are headed toward the Inland Sea. They stop in a small town and ask for a place to stay for the night. Tory watches Bryna be refused a berth. Neal and Jake continue their way over the mountains, while Neal works on trying to escape. Tory and Bryna make it to the town on the Inland Sea. Tory is told she must travel to a tower in the middle of the Sea on her own. When she gets to the boat, Tory meets Marina, Bryna's half sister and a princess of the Sea who would take her to the Tower.

Alex's mother is very worried about Jake - and with reason. Alex cares too, but he's there and Jake isn't. It feels unfair, somehow. After Jake and Neal are captured, Bryna takes Tory and Jeremy into her troupe. Tory begins to perform with Bryna's dance troupe as they make their way to the tower where Alex lives. Neal flashes back to when he was a painter for the Queen of Westover. He witnesses the Queen declare war on the Delphic kingdom. Once she declares war, the Queen asks Neal if he can protect the kingdom.

Alex wanders around a tower in the middle of the Inland Sea. He worries about his mother, and reassures her that his father, King Delphic, won't try to take them back to his castle. Tory, Jake, Jeremy and Neal escape from Garten. Bryna and her troupe of dancers pick them up. She takes them back to the oxcart and loads some of the fruit which was in the cart. She also helps Jake get his cart from the ditch. During their effort, Garten catches up with the troupe. This time, he only takes Jake and Neal, leaving Tory and Jeremy with Bryna.

Leaving the castle, Neal is ecstatic with freedom. The three of them make their way down the final hills, with Tory and Jeremy trying to ignore the babbling coming from Neal. At the last hill they're overtaken by Garten, King Delphic's Captain of the Guard, and captured. King Delphic hears from his messenger that Jeremy, Tory and Neal are no longer on their way to help his son with the oxcart. The messenger wonders if the King is going too far in his quest to make the spell focused on keeping the kingdoms together. Garten drags Tory, Jeremy and Neal from one Inn to the next, as he brings them closer to King Delphic. On his way he captures one other person, Jake, who turns out to be the man with the oxcart Tory and Jeremy were trying to help.

Once in the castle, Jeremy goes exploring, leaving Tory in the entrance hall. While she waits for him to return, a strange man shows up. Though she is scared, Tory holds her own by offering the man food and a warm sweater. He takes both the food and the sweater, but tries to bolt when Jeremy comes back from his exploration and tells Tory how he's found a place where he thinks someone must be sleeping, Jeremy finally notices the man Tory is struggling to keep with her. When Jeremy asks the man who he is, the man gives no answer. Deciding the man isn't worth the effort Tory lets him go. Jeremy and Tory try to leave the castle. Appearing before them, the man introduces himself as Neal and explains that Hildegard (the name of the castle) won't allow them to leave unless they pledge to return to the castle when they are finished with their journey. Jeremy is skeptical since Neal claims he's been in Castle Hildegard for 200 hundred years. Though neither Tory nor Jeremy are particularly inclined to believe Neal, they follow along and pledge to the castle to return once they help the man with the oxcart. As part of the deal Hildegard tells them they must take Neal along with them.

While visiting her Aunt, Tory is taken by a picture of a man and an oxcart in the dining room of the house. That night, she has a dream about it that wakes her up. The dream makes her so curious about the painting that she needs to see it. She is surprised to meet her cousin Jeremy in the dining room. Then, with Tory leading the way, the two of them venture into - and through - the painting. In the new world Tory meets Karen and Paul. They help Tory and her cousin by taking them in to their house. Tory is amazed and confused to see that Jeremy already knows both Karen and Paul. She asks them about it and Karen tells her he's been helping out the man in the picture. The next morning, Tory and Jeremy leave Karen and Paul's home, and head over the mountains to help the man with the oxcart. In the mountains frozen rain begins to fall. Hoping for some shelter, they come upon a large castle.

The trees are moving apart, and the kingdoms are separating with them. The tension is pulling the land into war. The Queen and the Head bard conspire to keep the kingdoms together using an ancient spell. Before asking any one, they lure Neal, a painter magician into working with them without telling him why. Neal accepts the offer to paint for the Queen thinking it's simply another job.