Dr. Gabriel Stoddard's research doesn't usually involve leaving the confines of his study and that's the way he likes it. He's going to have to go way out to find his answers this time. The oppressive theocracy of the Ur-Pax has tightly controlled the technology and the knowledge available to the Five Races for over two hundred years. For Gabriel Stoddard, getting what he needs is going to involve more than merely risk to life and limb. To the forbidden cemetery plant Styria he is going. There, at the peak of a frozen mountain lies a tomb whose very existence the Hierophants of the Ur-Pax deny. Finding his answers means daring more than the wrath of the state; for within lies something terrifying to the mighty Priest-Kings who have ruled unchallenged for so long.