Kern "Wolf-Eye" and his Men of the Wolves continue their war against the Vanir raiders. But innocents are paying the price for the Wolves' actions as the Vanir pillage and burn one village after another. Only by uniting the Cimmerian clans under one banner—and one army—will Kern be able to rid the land of the Vanir once and for all.

As a favored son in one of the high families of Aquilonia, Nermesa Klandes wanted for nothing—except glory won by his own hand. Defying his family and casting aside the opulence he was born into, Nermesa joins the Aquilonian army so that he might serve his liege, King Conan. But Nermesa soon learns there is a great distance between his courageous idealism and the gory battlefields of the Westermarck, where the savage Picts wage unceasing warfare. Through bravery and cunning, Nermesa comes into his own as a warrior and a man. When he kills the Pictish leader, he is hailed as a hero. But he also unleashes an unholy power that will shake the very foundations of the Aquilonian Empire...

In the realm of Aquilonia, in the time when Conan was King, a young barbarian fights to restore the honor of his tribe—and to claim his revenge… In the bustling city of Tarantia, the young Pictish warrior Kral has been imprisoned after slaughtering a cadre of city Rangers and Aquilonian soldiers, while his friends Alanya and Doniel struggle to find safety in the labyrinthian city streets. But Kral’s search for the Teeth of the Ice Bear—and his assaults on those who stole it—have caught the attention of King Conan himself. There are rumors he is sending a mighty force to Kral’s homeland to crush the presumed Pictish rebellion, even as the Picts themselves are on the verge of launching a campaign that will drench the land in blood. Now, Kral and his companions must follow the trail of the Teeth through the back alley shadows of Tarantia, to the halls of King Conan, and across the seas where their greatest challenge awaits them…

The young Pictish warrior Kral, aided by his loyal cadre of friends, sails to the sinister and dangerous realm of Stygia, on the trail of the stolen holy relic that could save his people—the Teeth of the Ice Bear. Yet even after enduring perils beyond their darkest dreams, they find that part of their prize is missing—stolen by the duplicitous warrior-thief, Conor. Journeying into the heart of the Cimmerian wilderness in the dead of winter, Kral and his companions search for their traitorous former comrade even as the enraged Picts wage a desperate, doomed war against the great King Conan himself. Beset by enemies on all fronts, Kral must fight for possession of the Teeth of the Ice Bear if he is to save his people from utter annihilation, and claim a destiny he never could have dreamed of…

Aided by a king's daughter and a circle of allies, a young warrior embarks on a quest against those who destroyed his people, and the tyrant who took the precious Teeth of the Ice Bear. And to do so, he must become his enemy's worst nightmare. He must become a ghost.

The army of Kern "Wolf-Eye" has been scattered, and as the dead are buried, the tribes gather to choose new leaders. To prove his worth, Kern must seek out the House of Crom, where rests a weapon of legend that can kill any man, beast, or god. For in his heart he knows that not all glory lies on the battlefield, and that there is no sacrifice too great to sing one last song of victory.