Hardening the Steel

On the battlefield, a woman discovers the baby lying next to a dying warrior. Having recently lost her two infant sons, she decides to keep it for her own, defying the judgment against his vanquished people. A blacksmith helps her keep the secret. Kitt grows up on a remote island in the grey northern sea. He works hard to become a master blacksmith, values books above gold, and daydreams about faraway lands and shimmering cities. He never doubts that he knows everything about his parents - the blacksmith Eckehart and the healer Aslaug - unaware of the dark secret that shrouds his birth. Warriors from many lands come to Isenkliff in pursuit of the renowned Aurora Steel, and they show Kitt how to become a warrior too. His mother disapproves of combat and war and teaches him to heal wounds and harness his strength, not to do harm. However, she does not share her knowledge of magic with him. In thirteen tales, Kitt faces Ice-Giants and the Snow Queen, fearsome monsters and once a moonlight sword wielded by a silver woman. He crosses the sea in an open boat to sail to the Dark Wood Murkowydir, where lost cities sleep and creatures survive that are long extinct elsewhere. There, the Woodstalkers lurk, who are feared for their stealth and cruelty. The Knights of the Red Lily teach him their code of honor to aid, protect and serve.