The city of Torch Port, restored and run by Will over two years, is now home to people from all over the world. Its newest citizens are the dwarves, a former warrior race of mountain-dwellers turned vagabonds by the fall of the Iron Country. Will makes it his business to learn about their past, hoping not only to help them in any way he can, but also to gain some insight into the imminent threat said to be lurking in the Rust Mountains. Yet even as Will teaches a timid dwarf the ways of a warrior, the name Valacirca strikes terror into his own heart...