Everybody's on the run: Laurin the dwarf, sent on an improbable errand by a dead king, ends up with an assassin on his tail. Bryn of Bailon, heir to a dark and troubling secret, discovers there's no escaping the impossible burden that's about to be placed on his shoulders. And Rhea Redbreast, apprentice Headhunter, makes it onto her own guild's hit-list when she seeks justice for her parents' killers. But the real trouble is just beginning: shipwrecked on the frozen shores of the Ice Wastes, eternal victim Nudd Wiggin stumbles onto an ancient weapon and is turned into something more - and less - than human. As the cruel and devious King of Dunmark unleashes a war that quickly spreads to the neighboring kingdoms, a weaponized Nudd raises terror after terror, driving wave upon wave of desperate, battle-hardened Nordsmen south towards the war-torn kingdoms' borders.