In PB Morlen's first book in the "White Bird" series, Illuminating Crystal, eighteen-year-old Crystal Blue, a child from the stars, has learned her fate: She must travel the globe and walk between worlds to unveil the sacred knowledge of the ancients so humanity can ascend into the Fifth Age.
In Book II of the "White Bird" series, Crystal Blue Sky, readers are reacquainted with Crystal, who, upon awakening the morning she and her friend David Lange are supposed to leave for Pine Ridge, South Dakota, can't remember how a certain serpentine tattoo came to be around her neck and where a big black dog she loves beyond reckoning named Wyndon, came from. Feeling like someone has tampered with her memory or is playing a trick on her; she's now a bit paranoid and prickly.
Nonetheless, with her dog and friend by her side, she sets out on the mission she was born to fulfill, beginning her journey in the Pine Ridge Reservation, hoping to learn the secrets of the Lakota Sioux. After meeting with the Wicasa Wakan, the shamans and elders of the fourteen bands of the Lakota Oyate, she strengthens her ghost, heals her past and cleanses her spirit with fire and water, all necessary to prepare her for the mission some fear may claim her life.
While Crystal walks between worlds, realization of her mysterious and divine powers dawns bright and clear when she meets one of her soldiers, the man she loves, and many others she does not expect, some welcomesome not. Surprisingly for her, the journeys are exciting and she accepts her once-dreaded mission with newfound anticipation, knowing deep down that her soldiers will be at her side if trouble draws near.
But something happens on an island in the North Pacific, something she did not expect. One of her soldiers has fallen and a sacrifice must be made. To save the life of this soldier, another's must be forfeit and the loss will break Crystal's heart because he will be left alone.
Can she do this? Can she leave him behind? Or will she sacrifice her mission to save him?