After his pyrrhic victory at Moorview, King Emin learns the truth about the child Ruhen - but it is too late; Emin is powerless to act. The past year has taken a terrible toll and Ruhen's millennia-old plans are about to bear terrible fruit. As the remaining Menin troops turn on each other and Ruhen promises a new age of peace to the beleaguered peoples of the Land - while brutally purging his remaining opposition - Emin mourns his friends and turns his attention to what might be the final chance to strike back. A covert team must infiltrate the collapsing city-state of Vanach to find a weapon so terrible only a dead man could wield it and only a madman would try. Without it, King Emin and his allies will be obliterated - their last hope is Isak Stormcaller, former Lord of the Farlan, who stands with one foot in the Land and the other in the Dark Place. Though the chances of success are small, failure is unimaginable, for there can be only one outcome if Ruhen's ascension is unchecked: total dominion over the Gods themselves. One way or another, the future of the Land will be decided - written in the blood of men.