Through death comes power... Forbidden law promises that the soul can be harnessed, the magic of life captured in those final seconds, and used to give strength, power, and life everlasting. For the one who commands the soul of the dead, commands death itself. - Yarrow the Great - The bonds of the Dul'Buhar are eternal... The land is in the grip of a brutal winter when a desperate cry for help from one of his former sword brothers draws Akiri and Kyra up into the mountains beyond Erdogan Pass. But they are too late. Met on the way by his friend's son, they arrive to find the village ablaze and his sword brother, Cammeric, his wife and daughter slain, leaving the boy an orphan. The fell beast that murdered his family is no mere man--it is the rotten husk of a warrior brought back from the grave and will stop at nothing to fulfill its master's bidding. Sworn to protect the boy and avenge his friend, Akiri finds himself hunted across the mountains by the dead. But for each he slays another rises. Now, he must turn his back on this world and all he holds dear and venture into the kingdom of the dead if he is to put an end to the menace posed by a legendary evil. It's dark magic hungers for one thing: The Soul of the First Dragon. And should he find it, the rise of the Necromancer will herald an eternal reign of death and darkness.