Beneath the ice-locked surface of the planet the sword rules the Freehold. In the subterranean darkness the old order crumbles as the life-giving Machines of the Ancients stop one by one. Nameless savagery stalks the lower depths and the broken cries of the tortured haunt the War Lord's chambers . . . In a doomed land there is one man whose spirit is not crushed, whose sword is as lethal as it is swift. Loathed…