Octavia Randolph · 2021 · sea

In an Angle-land riven by contesting Danes, the second generation takes the weight. Hrald of Four Stones has fallen in love with Dagmar, daughter of the dead King Guthrum, who owns nothing but the jewels at her neck and the secrets she carries. Ashild, remembering Sidroc's warning that those who fight Fate are thwarted at every turn, wants neither the marriage nor the leaving of Four Stones that everyone who loves her intends. Ceric of Kilton, now second in command to Prince Eadward, crosses with the Prince's small troop into enemy country and is pushed past endurance. Deep into Lindisse, Hrald and Ceric are both caught in a fearsome struggle between the marauding Danes and the warriors of Four Stones, and the result changes both men for good.

1. 1
   Kilton

   The hall on the Somerset cliff. Ceric is a proven warrior now, and Wessex has need of him: he is made second in command to Aelfred's son Eadward, in the ceaseless attempt to bring the Danish interloper Haesten to heel.

2. 2
   Witanceaster

   Aelfred's chief town, where a young man in the Prince's confidence takes his orders. From here Eadward's troop rides out after Haesten, and the borders of the Dane-law stop meaning very much at all.

3. 3
   Lundenwic

   The trading town on the Thames, marked on Randolph's England sheet for this book, and the hinge between Wessex and the Danish east. Beyond it the Prince's small troop crosses into enemy territory.

4. 4
   Four Stones

   Deep into Lindisse, and the struggle that the whole book has been walking toward: the marauding Danes against the warriors of Four Stones, with Hrald and Ceric both caught in it. Ashild is here, and what happens on this ground changes both men forever.

5. 5
   Gotland

   Afterwards Hrald takes ship east to his father, over the long Baltic road his family has sailed since Ceridwen and Sidroc were carried down it as captives.

6. 6
   Tyrsborg

   Sidroc's hall on Gotland, where a son meets his father and finds kin unseen for decades. Ashild's advice from her step-father, given before he sailed, is still doing its work: are you always fighting Fate and the will of the Gods? Then you will be thwarted at every turn.