It’s enough to make a torturer want to run – if he could even walk without a stick – and Inquisitor Glokta needs to find answers before the Gurkish army comes knocking at the gates. Northmen have spilled over the Angland border and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem: he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained and worst-led army in the world. And Bayaz, First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated women in the South, most feared in the North, and most selfish boy in the Union make strange companions, but, if only they didn’t hate each other so much, potentially deadly ones.