The church is betrayed, and in the midst of an assault on a remote stronghold, it falls to Tol Kraven, the church knights’ most troublesome apprentice, to deliver a cryptic message to a distant convent. Pursued by the world’s most notorious killers, Tol’s journey will take him across the frozen north in a desperate race. His path will take him to the prize the church’s enemies seek, and the terrible secret at the heart of the church, a secret inextricably linked with his own family’s dark past. A secret men will kill to keep. A secret men will kill to learn. A secret that if revealed could destroy an entire religion. The greatest truths, he will learn, are never painless.