Karkedon is dead. A great evil is removed from the world, but before he died Karkedon bequeathed the true name of his father Veraxus to the ambitious Johaan, the Snow Giant King. Now the great drake is Johaan's slave. Johaan sets out to conquer the the Triune kingdoms of the North, seeking to sunder men, elves and dwarves for his mistress the diabolical Ice Queen Navernya. Fresh from his combat with Karkedon, Tarion Praetorian rides to the North, but the conflict is fraught with more peril than his old foe Johaan. As the enslaved Veraxus and Johaan's hordes close in on the capital of men, Trondheim more powers enter the fray. The lich lord Ragnar, once King of the North, rouses his long dead hosts and marches for the crown. The exiled Storm Giants descend from Mount Mistral. Finally, the mysterious and powerful dragoness Athena Xerxes descends on the North. Tarion is at the center of it all. Will he be able to save the Triune cities and free Veraxus? This time it appears that the Praetorian indeed has tackled a task too large.