Eight winters after his parentage, Rafi has found his place as a medicine master in the tribe of the man who shaped him. When his Fyrval is chosen to lead the annual Frosthunt - six masters, open tundra, a white bear with no natural predators - he selects Rafi for the party. The hunt goes wrong in a way no one planned for and cannot undo. Left with four hunters, a second bear, and the grief of losing the only man whose judgment he trusted, Rafi must find a way to finish what they came for. The Vardori have no word for what he is carrying. But they have always known how to read what the wilderness shows them, if they are willing to look.