Many faces, many names, have passed through the ranks of the Blackshield Dogs. But few of them ever surpassed the bloody reputation of the man known and feared on Caermark's battlefields as Red Harry. But before he was Red Harry, before he was anything, he was Harruvard of Werrewood, a man-at-arms sworn in service to Lord Gadrin Strael. Injured and left for dead during a bitter conflict along Lord Gadrin’s borders, his life was saved by the kindness of a stranger. But as Harruvard's past refused to let him go, that same kindness soon would be stained red. In the deep of winter, beneath creeping snows and biting ice, the black seeds of the monster Harruvard would become were sown by the hands of men, and nurtured by their cruelty.

In the fighting pits of Parathet, life is cheap – for blood is but a commodity and champions are utterly expendable. Beneath the shadows of opulent towers and golden domes, the young slave, Harlin, carves a terrible name for himself from the flesh of men. Born of a warrior race and forced into a life of unending violence, many say no man alive can slay him. But in Parathet the price of reputation is weighted in gold and silver, and when Harlin’s owner is challenged to put that reputation to its greatest test, it may well be his last. For Harlin must face the man known as Ethiki the Bastard. A slave-warrior of more dread renown than even himself, Ethiki’s kills are beyond number, his strength unmatched and methods sickening. But in Harlin the fires of the past burn and sear without end, the memories of his childhood sharp as the torturer’s blade, his hatred birthing a relentless, diseased thirst for vengeance. Faced with finality, with the prospect of it being unfulfilled, the blood-crowds of Parathet may yet learn that the scars of the sand run deeper than mere flesh.