"Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College--Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky. Now the real training begins, and Violet's already wondering how she'll get through. It's not just that it's grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it's designed to stretch the riders' capacity for pain beyond endurance....

"The campaign in the Frozen Continent has failed. War returns to Norghana, and with it death and destruction. King Uthar has been defeated in the Frozen Continent. Wounded, he retreats to Norghania to regroup his forces and shield himself behind the walls of the capital. Lasgol and his friends will try to pass the fourth and final year of instruction and graduate as Rangers on their own merits. To do this they will have to take part in deeply dangerous...