Sam Monroe is the reluctant commander of a tough-minded warrior people living in what was once northern Mexico. His tiny country is flanked on the northeast by the Kingdom River a vast trade-driven nation that replaced the southern United States and on the northwest by the Khanate an empire of nomads who swept down the west coast after crossing the ice from what was once Russia. Sams people cling to a precarious hard-won freedom. . Toghrul Khan leader of the Khanate wants Kingdoms lucrative trad