After a devastating raid by the slavers of the eastern Ottalan Empire that cripples her clan, killing the chieftain and his wife, Seraphime, princess of the Osprey Clan, is left for dead in the snows of her homeland, the Sierran Tundra. Rescued and then guided by an ancient god who seeks to wake the tundra and rally her nations against the looming Eagle of the Desert, Seraphime is instructed to strike south for the homeland of the proud and war-like Greyl tribes to seek aid for her beleaguered people. The terms of that alliance are more than she can bear. As Seraphime struggles to choose between her duty and her heart, the Tigil Mstusa plots in the centre of the desert Ottalan Empire. His raiding party obliterated by a mysterious man and his three black hounds in the tundra, Mtsusa wants revenge and he plans to enact it with the full force of the mighty Ottalan Empire behind him. Seraphime must make peace with her fate or risk the destruction of her people, and the god whom she loves. The Summer Bird is volume one of the two volume epic The Seraphime Saga."