Spring is around the corner, and so is Hal Franklin's thirteenth birthday. Everything is quiet in the village of Carter. Too quiet.When nighttime intruders take dozens of villagers hostage, the shapeshifters find themselves up against a familiar enemy: the scrags of Old Earth. And the constant threat of executions renders them powerless to do anything to stop them. Instead, they're forced to cooperate and spend time in the dreaded Prison of Despair, a dismal place in the woods with an insidious curse.Hal and his resourceful friends find ways to escape the prison undetected. In doing so, they discover the true reason the scrags have walked into the village...PRISON OF DESPAIR is the eighth book in the ISLAND OF FOG series and the first of a two-part story that concludes in the ninth book, CASTLE OF SPELLS