Snow at Jianmen

In the waning years of the Southern Song, Mongol cavalry presses at the borders, and Hulegu leads a massive army south.

Jianmen Pass, the Song empire’s last line of defense in the southwest, where life and death hang in the balance.

Lin Zhao has guarded the mighty pass alone for three years. As a boy, he followed his father across countless mountains and valleys beyond the pass. His father taught him by hand every hidden path, crevice, and underground stream in Yingchou Ravine until he knew them by heart. On his deathbed, his father left him one final warning: at the bottom of the ravine lies evidence that could shake the court. It must never be uncovered unless the dynasty is on the brink of ruin and traitors collude with the enemy.

Scouts constantly cross the lands beyond the pass, while hundreds of Hulegu’s White Wolf Guards are lost one after another on the mountain trails, all because Lin Zhao knows the terrain so well that no detour taken by the enemy can escape his predictions.

Then a woman calling herself Duan Qingya, a refugee from Fengxiang, suddenly appears inside the pass. She dutifully copies documents every day, meek and humble, seemingly unarmed. But the hard calluses on her palm, worn from years of gripping a blade, and her midnight forays into the hidden waterways of Yingchou Ravine expose the murderous intent and purpose she conceals.

Her gentle appearance is all a disguise. Every step is a test, all to find the evidence of Jia Sidao’s treason, sealed away by Lin Zhao’s father in the depths of Yingchou Ravine.

Hulegu desperately needs this evidence to bring the Southern Song’s powerful ministers to heel and hasten his cavalry’s advance south. Meanwhile, currents run deep in the court at Lin’an, where every faction wants the incriminating proof in its own hands.

On one side stands the commander guarding the pass, who knows the mountains by heart, has laid a deadly trap that is open in some places and tight in others, and holds the whole situation in his grasp.

On the other is a hidden agent, bearing a secret mission, keeping her blades sheathed as she lies in wait by his side for the right moment to strike.

They face each other day after day. Every casual conversation is a scheme, every silence a contest.

As snow and wind blanket Jianmen, a deadly game that will decide the fate of the north and south begins in earnest.