How is the king like a blacksmith? He has a hammer as well as a sword.

Duncan Archer has heard that riddle many times, but he doesn't know what it means. No one does, not even the members of the Royal Guild of Swordsmiths. It isn't Duncan's business anyway. Good sense tells him to stick to beating iron into shape for the residents of his backwater town, and not worry about the king and his nobles pounding Frankland into the ground.

But good sense never stopped Duncan from poking his nose into everyone else's business. If it had, he might not be a fugitive, the subject of the biggest manhunt in the country's history.

With a charge of murder hanging over his head like a sword, understanding that riddle becomes much more urgent...