The saints favor her, else-wise a peasant girl like Kate Carpenter would never be apprenticed to the kingdom's master healer. But her patron saint also marks her ready for the duty of tending to a mission that must cross the ice-bound mountains. Their little kingdom faces invasion by a vast empire and desperately needs allies; across the snow-filled pass, through the deathly thin air, is a country that's held off the empire and may be willing to lend an army. Kate knows about frostbite and the everyday injuries of wilderness travel. She can heal those. She's not ready for the attentions of a ne'er-do-well knight and the kingdom's only prince, though. And she isn't ready for the monsters that harry them night and day, picking off their archers first, wearing the party to exhaustion, pushing Kate beyond the limits her healing abilities. She must keep them alive, or her blood will be on the snow too.