After escaping a lifetime of slavery in ice-cold Skandia, Will and Princess Cassandra (locally known as Evanlyn) are trying to get back to their homeland. There's good news and bad news. The good news is that they are reunited with Horace the apprentice knight and Halt the Ranger. The bad news is that a couple thousand warring plainsmen are blocking the way home. The four Araluens have to put aside decades of mistrust and hostility towards the Skandians and help them defend their land against the Temujai. Why don't they just leave the Skandians to their own devices? After Skandia, the plainsmen are going after Araluen.