You're kinda-sorta hitting on the plot that LEAD to the Death Squad being sent. LOL I'll give it to you!
The Kurii, led by Zarendargar aka Half-Ear, set up a stronghold in the Arctic, a giant metal fortress in the center of the frozen ocean which the Innuit called "The mountain (ice berg) that does not move." The stronghold was to be the center of the Kurii invasion. To maintain secrecy, they intended to drive the Innuit from the region by preventing the migration of a huge herd of tabuk (hell if I can remember what the herd was named, now!), thus starving the Innuit into relocating.
Word of the missing tabuk herd and the ice berg that didn't move got back to Samos, the agent of Priest-Kings and Tarl Cabot's friend, and so of course Tarl went to investigate. No sooner did he get to the North than he....
... soon met the female who thought she was the leader -- SHE was directing the construction efforts of a huge wall that was keeping the tabuk from crossing the ice. Tarl had been drugged and abducted, along with other men, and forced to help build this barrier wall. Then an Innuit man, Imnak, and another of his friends, Rim, helped him overthrow the guards and breech the wall, allowing the herd through...
... and of course Tarl enslaved that woman who thought she was in charge, and renamed her Aubrey because Sidney was not a proper woman's name... Then he went on to save the day when he found and destroyed the Kurii compound, preventing the invasion...
... but not before he actually befriended Zarendargar, whom he believed died in the explosion...
... when really Zarendargar, Half-Ear, had fled to the Barrens. Because Zarendargar failed in his mission, the Kur sent a Death Squad after him, and Tarl went to warn Half-Ear.
It's a looong plot line that takes place over three books, I don't blame you for being fuzzy on it all!
Your go!