Karsten and Babette are an unlikely pair. One is a violent man at the end of a violent career, the other is the llama who carries his gear. With reflexes slowing and his appetite for brutality fading, Karsten has begun to think about a quiet retirement and maybe a woman to keep him warm. But when a simple wager over a bottle of beer goes disastrously wrong, those dreams are ensnared in the tendrils of a curse and the pair must swear service to the distant Dowager Empress

Or forfeit a year of their lives for every day they resist.