The War to end all wars is coming. The Long Night has begun and the Endlords are stirring in their eternal prison. Now should be the time when city men and clansmen come together to fight the dark forces, yet the clans feud amongst themselves and the Mountain Cities plan invasion.

Only the Sull are preparing for a war against the endlords. But they are an ancient race and their numbers are declining. They fear that this fight may be their last. Their most valued warrior is Ash March. She is their Reach, but first she must be brought home.

Meanwhile the outcast clansman Raif Sevrance is searching desperately for Ash. To find her he must hazard a journey through the nightmare realm of the Want, a place where even the Sull now fear to tread, a place that hides the Fortress of Grey Ice...