To ordain the destruction of a whole people, Svalinir's Spear was cast against the Kri, a nation of warriors, dangerous cold-hearted sellswords threatening to bring down the Northern lands in a spiral of war. King Grimwolf of the Theusten leads the Northern host into Tridden Moor, where a generation of warriors perishes. All the Kri die there, men, women, and children, old and young, but for one boy. Is it possible to teach healing to the last of a murderous race and keep him from war? Blood will not be cheated; those are the words of a warrior dying in the Battle of the Bloodswamp. Kitt grows up on the island of Isenkliff in the grey northern Sea, where Brynnir's forge stands. He works hard to become a master blacksmith and does not doubt that he knows all about his parents, the smith Eckehart and the healer Aslaug. Warriors from many lands come to Isenkliff for the famous Aurora steel, and they teach Kitt to be a warrior. His mother wishes Kitt to become a healer. Sometimes, he crosses the sea in an open boat to sail to the Dark Wood Murkowydir, where lost cities sleep and creatures that have died out elsewhere survive. Across thirteen stories, Kitt faces Ice-Maidens and Ice-Giants, and once a Silver Sword wielded by a shadow woman. He runs for his life from the Feen Woodstalkers, feared for their stealth and cruelty. The young blacksmith turns in his masterpiece, and the code of the Red Lily Knights teaches Kitt to help, save, and serve.