The dire legend of Thagrosh Hellborne began in cold and darkness . . . Thagrosh has known nothing but bondage and grueling labor for all his adult life. Prisoners of Khadoran slavers, he and the other ogrun of his village have spent their lives toiling in the lightless depths of a mine. Yet Thagrosh and his brother Vargal have a plan to escape their misery and flee to the nearby nation of Rhul. When their bid for freedom is discovered, Thagrosh is forced to escape alone into the wilderness. Pursued by the brutal Khadoran overseer and his band of relentless trackers, Thagrosh flees ever deeper into the cold mountains. But he is not only running for his life—he feels an irresistible draw to a towering peak, where an ancient, unknowable power awaits the perfect vessel to make manifest its will upon Caen once again.