At Clan Blackhail, Raina claims power while her husband Mace is away at war. Ash March abandons Raif and leaves with the Sull, the ancient deadly race feared by all. Alone, Raif must find a place for himself with the outcasts who call themselves the Maimed Men. Traveling into the Great Want, the vast wasteland at the heart of the continent, he searches for the lost Fortress of Grey Ice.
Ash March and Raif Sevrance, the two outcasts whose fates are entwined by ancient prophecies and need, in the cold, dark world that threatens to be torn asunder by a war to end all wars. Isolated by their birthrights, they are but two who fight the dreaded Endlords, and their strength and courage will be needed if the world is to be saved from darkness.
You are Jal Rahkar, the Reach. You were born to break the boundary between worlds. Every thousand years the shadows rise and the long night falls. All things lie in balance, and all must change. You will change it.
No clansman would come this far north, for fear of being lost. Raif had looked into himself to find the same fear, but there were some dead spots in his emotions now, and though he retained fear of many things the Great Want wasn't one of them.
The city of the old ones, the Fortress of Grey Ice. Raif’s breath cooled in his lungs. What had the people who lived here feared? How was it possible they had all been lost?