150 years of conquest had made Rilan think he'd truly seen the full extent of opposition any fragment of the continent could throw at him. He'd made the first incline in the unnaturally lumpy kingdom of Hilly, had cut the first crystals that made the lenses that blew the Freespeaker's Freezepeak Keep apart and shut them up for once. He'd burnt the Brown Marsh black and erected the Dark Step to mark his being the sole army that stood against the swamp's improbable dangers and horrendous plant life....