A Sword from Red Ice

From this position, she watched the decline of her clan. Mace had been born at Clan Scarpe, and it wasn't long before his old loyalties started to show. When the Scarpchouse was burned down by a neighboring clan, Mace opened the doors of the Hailhouse to Scarpe. Scarpemen in then hundreds poured into Blackhail and set about consuming it's resources. When Angus Lok, newly freed from captivity by the— Dog Lord, visited Raina, he planted the seed of dissent, "I will be chief," Raina found herself saying after he had left. Her husband was a chief-killer who had ordered the slaying of innocent women and children on the Bluddroad, and plunged his clan into needless war. Surely she could be a better chief than that? The two people she informed of her intentions—the senior warrior Orwin Shank and the clan matron Anwyn Bird—agreed with her, and Raina set about looking for opportunities to claim power.

After departing Blackhail, Angus Lok returned to his home east of Ille Glaive. Upon arrival he found his worst nightmare had come to life: his house was empty and burned down. His three daughters and his wife were gone. Dead. Angus was a ranger, a member of the secret society known as the Phage. His work involved opposing the rise of the Endlords, and he blamed himself for leading evil to his door.

Leaving the Cavern of Black Ice, Ash and Raif headed north into Ice Trapper territory. Once there, they met up with Mal Naysayer and Ark Veinsplitter. Raif was drugged, and awakened to find Ash and the Far Riders gone. Sadaluk, Listener of the Ice Trappers, informed Raif that Ash had chosen to leave, and could not be followed. Raif reluctantly accepted this and decided to head east. Sadaluk gave him two parting gifts: a sword salvaged from the corpse of a Forsworn knight and a single arrow. "Grow wide shoulders, Clansman," Sadaluk told him. "You will need them for all of your burdens."

With a heavy heart, Raif departed. He had decided to join the Maimed Men, an outlaw clan who lived on the great cliffs above the Rift. During his journey he learned firsthand what the Endlords and their Unmade could do to men. In an ancient fastness on the edge of the Great Want, he found the smoking, disintegrating corpses of four Forsworn knights. They had been attacked by the Unmade—who were now escaping from the Blind—and as the knight's bodies smoked to nothing the Endlords claimed their souls. One knight remained alive but mortally wounded, and Raif learned that the only way to stop the man's body from becoming unmade was to kill him, thereby depriving the Endlords of his death. It was a chilling lesson, and Raif found himself embracing the name the Listener had given him, Watcher of the Dead.

No man who was whole could join the Maimed Men, and upon arrival at the Rift, the tip of Raif's finger was taken by a man named Stillborn. Traggis Mole, the leader of the Maimed Men, was suspicious of Raifs claims to be a crack bowman, and ordered a test of arrows. Raif won the test, claimed a prize of a rare Sull longbow and earned the name Twelve Kill. His opponent was killed and thrown into the Rift.

Meanwhile, Ash had become Sull. In a deep mountain cavern east of Ice Trapper territory, the Far Riders drained her human blood to make way for Sull blood. Ash learned the Sull were an ancient race whose numbers and influence were in decline. At one time they had occupied the entire Northern Territories; now they had been reduced to a region of land in the east. The Sull believed it was their destiny to fight the Endlords and the Unmade, and by becoming Sull Ash agreed to take on this fight. As they made their way south to the Heart of the Sull, they were pursued by the Unmade. Just north of the River Flow, they were attacked by unmade pack wolves. Ark was killed and Mal continued fighting as Ash floated to safety on an unhitched bridge. «Daughter» had been Ark's last word to her. The endearment almost broke Ash's heart.

Penthero Iss, the Surlord of Spire Vanis and Ash's foster father, had been planning to use Ash's Reach-power to seize control of the clan-holds. With his daughter gone, he decided to send an army to attack the clanholds and chose Marafice Eye as its leader. While the army marched north, bent on attacking rich and vulnerable Ganmiddich, the surlord was left unguarded and vulnerable in Spire Vanis. Rival grangelords sharpened their knives. Yet it was not a rival for the sur-lordship that brought down Iss: it was Crope, the faithful servant of the sorcerer who was enslaved beneath the Splinter. Crope and his lord had been separated seventeen years earlier when Iss had captured Baralis. Crope himself had been seized by slavers and sent to work in the mines. It took him seventeen years to escape. As soon as he was free he traveled across a continent to save his lord. Crope had giant's blood in his veins and he brought down the Splinter, killed the surlord, and carried Baralis to safety.