When Viking raiders attack a quiet Norse village, a small boy's life is ripped apart as he's carried away by sea and sold into a life of servitude. But when this young boy with veins full of fire and a head full of ideas comes of age, he is not what he seems to be. 

The events that follow propel Rowan on a journey that only the foolhardy or desperate would risk, leading him into the forest and up the mountain – into a whole world of secrets in itself. 

But this is only the beginning of his adventures. Something is stirring in the forest, something more ominous than the rising threat across the seas. Fearful travelers whisper of a darkness breathing in the forest, disturbing it, corrupting it. In the very heart of these stirrings, Rowan encounters that which defies belief, leaving him speechless with terror – and wonder.