A terrible thing has happened—the necromancer Taris Van Santi has returned from nothingness and taken the lead of the dark shurds. Having found a new leader, far more intelligent and powerful, the shurds moved out from their ancestral nests in the snow-covered mountains and began a real war against all living things in the Wild Lands. Human settlements are slaughtered and burned; innocent blood flows like a river. But the ancient necromancer Taris wants more—driven by any hatred, he is already anticipating meeting his enemies. One of his blood enemies—one of his hated enemies—is Baron Koris Van Iser, whose settlement he is already targeting, after being raised from the dead.