Forged in the fires of conflict, the Iron Kingdoms is a fantastic realm where the combined power of magic and technology thunders across a landscape shaped by war. Dominating the field of battle are rare individuals who have mastered both arcane and martial combat and who boldly lead mighty armies in the ongoing struggle to claim victory over these ancient lands. In the Undercity of Corvis, where mercenaries and criminals blur the lines between them, a ruthless crime lord has made a bold move to establish a stranglehold on Corvis' underworld and make it his own. When Canice Gormleigh becomes the target a brutal foreign crime syndicate called the Black Dogs, Colbie Sterling and the rest of the Black River Irregulars are prepared to defend her. Yet what begins as a simple bodyguard assignment turns personal when the syndicate, led by the vengeful underboss Ivan Varnek and a strange mother-son duo, marks the Black River Irregulars as the sole remaining obstacle keeping the Black Dogs from taking over the Undercity…and then the city of Corvis itself. Where other underworld gangs have negotiated, surrendered, or fled from the Black Dogs, the Black River Irregulars will stand and die instead…