The Lord Tree's still broken, Sam's grandfather and father are still poisoned, and Sam's blindness is getting worse. Unfortunately, the cures can be found in only one place: Svartalfheim, the land of the trolls. Traveling with Piper and Susan, the Hamish twins, Ferial, and guided by a treacherous, revenge-driven dwarf, Sam has to outfox amourous mountain trolls, delusional, prankster gnomes, and beautiful-but soulless-maidens who are determined to keep him in Svartalfheim forever. And then there's that dragon... But Sam is keeping secrets, secrets that ultimately threaten to rip their quest apart. Only he knows that he's really on a mission for the elves, seeking to deliver a deadly package to Miasma, the queen of the trolls. And, more than anything, Sam hopes to find the mother he's never met, rumored to be held captive somewhere in Svartalfheim. But if he finds her, he might just uncover a dark secret from his past that will destroy everything that Sam's ever believed about himself...and his friends.