Sixteen-year-old William hammers steel in his uncle's forge, strong and skilled, yet his heart remains untempered, yearning for a life beyond the quiet village. He is haunted by whispers of the past and questions about the mysterious father he never knew - a heritage his mother guards with sorrowful silence.But the fragile peace of William's youth shatters when tragedy strikes. Before her death, his mother reveals the truth: his father was a warrior from the feared northern tribes, who died protecting his family from enemies within his own land. Her final plea is for William never to seek vengeance, never to follow the path north into the dangers of his paternal homeland.Fate, however, ignores dying wishes. A chance encounter with a ruthless mercenary and a shadowy client drags William into a vortex of violence and betrayal. Marked by bloodshed and pursued by relentless enemies from the south, his only escape lies in the very direction his mother forbade - north, into the harsh, unforgiving borderlands where the Kingdom of Alton fades and the law of the axe prevails.Leaving behind everything he knows, William plunges into a brutal frontier caught between warring Hualeg tribes: the savage Logenir raiders who terrorize the border villages, and the enigmatic Vallanir, his father's own people. Forced into alliances of convenience with hardened mercenaries and desperate villagers struggling to form a militia, William must quickly trade his hammer for a sword. He discovers within himself a terrifying aptitude for violence, a ferocity that both saves him and chills him to the bone.Thrust onto the front lines of a savage conflict, William battles not only the enemies but also the warring factions within himself. Is his Hualeg blood a curse or a key? Can he honor his father's unknown legacy without becoming the kind of killer his mother feared? As he navigates treacherous landscapes and even more treacherous alliances, William must forge a new identity in the crucible of war. Can he survive the river of blood that defines the borderlands and find the truth he seeks without losing his soul?