Coelwyk climbs a mountain on the southwest edge of Adelstrad Province, where the Thumb Mountains divide Adelstrad from the Wristlands. House Koenig holds its charter from the Baron, and its wealth comes out of the rock as silver.

 

The Wildlings who cut the first channels into the mountain did not think of it as mining. They were bleeding it as an offering. Around the city lie the heart-rocks, great pits ringed with carved whorls, and the old saying still holds: a mouth fed is a mouth that eats.

 

Crease is a gambler with unnatural white hair, thrown into the prison mines over a debt, and Wildling on his mother's side. All he wants is out. The mountain has other plans for him.