“Theo had survived, but he doubted anyone else from the mission had. The explosion had ripped out half the ship’s side, taking most of the escape pods with it. He remembered his uncle’s face as he’d strapped Theo, against his wishes, into the one remaining escape pod while the ship was disintegrating about them."
Now Theo is alone, the only human on a world of giant trees whose multiple trunks seemed to intertwine far above him and reach to the sky. Befriending Kareela, one of the forest creatures who call themselves “the People,” he has to learn the forest ways to survive until a rescue ship arrives.
Taken into the Space Academy, Theo realizes that someone is trying to kill him, and when the cadets are assigned to care for the delegates at an intergalactic peace congress, Theo and his friends are plunged deeper into danger. It will take all of his forest skills if he is to survive the chaos that ensues as the world erupts into fire and ashes
