Ansel is a mute boy whose father sells him to a travelling dragon-slayer. But Brock is a cynical storyteller, planning to make money by protecting a mountain town from the monster thats said to threaten it. He knows full well that dragons dont exist, and that gullible people do. Then they fi nd that there is indeed a huge creature that makes its lair in the icy peaks. Its evil and terrifying, with one thought in its cunning brainto devour them ...