"A blade flashed. Hardacanut pawed at it, slapped against the flat but felt the edge bite his palm. He pivoted into the wielder, drove his sword up under a shield and cast the dying man down the ladder." When Ivar the Boneless, heathen Viking king of Dublin, rampages through the petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, it's a chance for anybody with the courage to master their own fate. Hardacanut the Berserker must prove himself worthy of Ivar's elite warband by carving a path to victory at the head of his own unruly band of warriors and freebooters. Young Ecbehrt of Bamburgh, a young English earl, yearns to escape the schemes of his king and flee into a wider world, but the Vikings are coming and war is in his blood. Meanwhile, two ruthless women refuse to accept their place in what's supposed to be a "man's world." Princess Ymma, amateur witch, will do anything to become a queen. Lathgertha, king Ivar's axe-wielding sister, needs to take the head of a chieftain in battle in order to join the shieldmaiden Raven Sisters. In the Dark Ages, anything is possible as long as you have a sword in your hand and warriors at your back...