Tomas Greenleaf has dedicated most of his life to becoming one of the finest soldiers in the sprawling Aldarri Empire, but nothing could prepare him for his first assignment: serving as a lone guardian for the frigid and remote village of Lahar. Surrounded by the deadly and unforgiving arctic for hundreds of miles, the people of Lahar have learned to thrive on the shores of the Serao: a river of molten rock holding back the ice. Greenleaf doesn't know why he was sent to this lonely place, surrounded by cold ice and colder stares, but he's determined to learn the dark secret at the heart of Lahar. When the warmth that has kept Lahar alive for hundreds of years begins to vanish, Greenleaf must set forth on a doomed mission to save those who most want him gone. Across a grueling and dead land, Greenleaf will face the implacable bitter cold of the arctic night to dig into the forbidden past of his Empire and face the creatures that claim the ice as their own. The ordeal will test his every limit, forcing him to battle not just the terrifying nightmares released from the ice, but the ugly truth at the core of all he believes.