WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

O rka: Orka's husband Thorkel has been murdered and her son Breca abducted. With her companions Lif and Mord she has tracked her son Breca to the Grimholt, a fortress in the north of Vigrie. Once there Orka is captured by the Galdurman Skalk, but with the help of the vaesen Spert and Vesli she breaks free, letting the wolf in her blood loose to rip and tear and rend.

Orka discovers that Breca is not there, although she finds a number of other Tainted children held captive. At the Grimholt she is reunited with the Bloodsworn, a mercenary band that she used to lead, her by-name Orka Skullsplitter. The new chief of the Bloodsworn, Glornir Shieldbreaker, is the brother of Orka's murdered husband.

While at the Grimholt, Orka and the Bloodsworn learn that Lik-Rifa the dragon-god has been set free from her imprisonment beneath the roots of the ancient ash tree, Oskutree.

Glornir is in pursuit of Skalk, a Galdurman of Darl, because he has abducted Glornir's wife, Vol the Seier-witch. He asks Orka to come with him, but she declines, hearing that Glornir and the Bloodsworn have fought a dragon-born at the recently discovered chamber of Rotta the rat-god. Orka hopes to find clues of her son's whereabouts at this place. Glornir sends a handful of the Bloodsworn to show her the way to Rotta's chamber and then they part ways on their separate quests.

At Rotta's chamber Orka and her companions find evidence that children were recently held captive here.

While at the chambers Myrk of the Raven-Feeder arrives. She is a dragon-born, sister to Ilska the Cruel and brother to Drekr, who murdered Orka's husband and abducted Breca, and she is leading a small group of the Raven-Feeders. Myrk discovers the body of her father, who had been slain by Varg No-Sense of the Bloodsworn. Both Orka and Myrk want answers. A fight ensues, the handful of Bloodsworn with Orka coming to her aid. Together they defeat the Raven-Feeders and Myrk is taken captive.

Myrk agrees to lead Orka and her companions to Breca in return for information on who killed her father. They travel to Starl, a trading town on Lake Horndal, where Orka meets Elvar and the Battle-Grim, and Ulfrir the thralled wolf-god. She discovers that Myrk is leading her on a false trail, and she makes a deal with Elvar and the Battle-Grim. They help stage an escape for Myrk in return for Orka sending word to Glornir and the Bloodsworn from Elvar, saying that Elvar wants to hire them in her fight against Lik-Rifa the dragon-god.

Myrk escapes and Orka tracks her, following her to Nastrandir, the halls of Lik-Rifa, and then on to Svelgarth, where a warband of warriors and vaesen under the command of the rat-god Rotta are assaulting the fortress town.

Orka infiltrates the camp while the attack is underway, finds Breca and escapes with him. She is pursued and caught by frost-spiders and tragically bitten, poison seeping through her. With her last strength she throws Breca into the river in the hope that the current will take him to the meeting point with her companions.

Varg: Varg is a slave who has killed the man who owned him, Kolskegg, and escaped the farm he has worked on all his life. He knows that his sister Fr?ya has died, he felt her die, but he does not know how. With a lock of his sister's hair he has sought a Seier-witch to perform an akáll, a spell that shows the last moments of someone's life, and that is how he became involved with the mercenary band the Bloodsworn. They took him on as an apprentice, and he has recently discovered that he is tainted, the wolf-god Ulfrir in his blood, and that the Bloodsworn are all tainted, too, their secret closely guarded.

He is at the Grimholt when the Bloodsworn are reunited with Orka, and he travels south with the Bloodsworn in pursuit of Skalk the Galdurman. They take with them the Tainted children they found as captives in the Grimholt.

During the journey to Darl, Varg meets a thrall he used to know at Kolskegg's farm, and she tells him the name of the slaver in Darl who purchased Varg's sister from Kolskegg. Brimil.

Once at Darl the Bloodsworn assault Skalk's Galdur tower, only to discover that it is already under attack by Prince Jaromir of Iskidan. They fail to find Vol or Skalk in the tower and so continue into the main hall of Darl, attacking Queen Helka and taking her son Prince Hakon captive.

Glornir negotiates with Queen Helka, and Helka agrees to loan the Bloodsworn a longship and hire them to hunt Prince Jaromir in return for the safe return of her son, Hakon.

While in Darl, Varg tracks down the slaver, Brimil, with the help of Svik, Einar and R?kia. They discover that Brimil sold Fr?ya to Brák Trolls-Bane, a huntsman in the employ of Drekr.

The Bloodsworn sail to Liga and find out that Prince Jaromir has already set sail for Iskidan. They set out in pursuit. During their voyage they are attacked at sea by two crews of tongue-eaters, an abomination of a parasite creature that slowly eats the tongue of its host and takes over their mind. The Bloodsworn defeat them, wipe out one crew and give chase to the second ship as it flees. They follow the tongue-eaters to an island, where they destroy them and their queen. While on the island they discover druzhina warriors of Prince Jaromir who have been captured and had the parasites laid inside them. Glornir offers them a quick, honourable death in return for knowledge of where Jaromir is taking Vol.

Varg and the Bloodsworn sail to Iskidan, past the port of Ulaz and up a river, eventually leaving the Sea-Wolf to travel across country and catch up with Jaromir as he reaches his fortress of Valdai. A battle ensues, where Vol is set free, Jaromir is killed and dungeons are found full of Tainted thralls, all of them the Tainted children of Kirill, the Khagan of Iskidan. They also find maps and plans in Valdai that suggest Jaromir was plotting an invasion of Vigrie.

Elvar: Elvar has travelled to Oskutree with the mercenary band the Battle-Grim. Their prisoner Uspa the Seier-witch has made a bargain with them, offering to lead them to this fabled place of untold treasure in return for the Battle-Grim hunting down and rescuing her abducted son Bjarn from Ilska the Cruel and her Raven-Feeders. Uspa and a handful of the Battle-Grim – Agnar, Sighvat, Elvar, Grend and Agnar's Seier-witch, Kráka – all bind themselves to each other, swearing the magical blóe svarie , the blood oath.

Once at Oskutree they were attacked by the Raven-Feeders, Ilska and her dragon-born kin conducting a Seier-ceremony involving many abducted Tainted children, and they set the dragon-god Lik-Rifa free. Agnar chief of the Battle-Grim was deceitfully slain by Biórr, a young man who had become Elvar's lover, but was secretly Tainted and one of the Raven-Feeders. It was Biórr who orchestrated the abduction of Bjarn.

Lik-Rifa bursts from the bowels of Oskutree, slays two of the three winged women who have stood guard over her for three centuries, and the Battle-Grim can only stand and watch as the dragon and Raven-Feeders leave Oskutree.

The survivors of the Battle-Grim set about gathering as much treasure as they can, while Elvar and those who swore the blood oath struggle over how they are going to complete their task of rescuing Bjarn, now that he is in the company of a dragon-god.

While searching the battle plain for treasure the winged warrior Skuld regains consciousness. There is a brief struggle and Elvar manages to bind her with the thrall-collar taken from one of the tainted. Skuld agrees to guide them deep underground into the tunnels beneath the great tree, where she says greater treasure is to be found.

Once underground they discover the remains of Lik-Rifa's chamber and find a Galdrabok of Seier-spells that she has written. Within this book Uspa comes across a spell that can raise a dead god. They construct a Seier-spelled thrall-collar in a forge beneath Oskutree and resurrect the wolf-god, Ulfrir, but he is weak from his ancient injuries.

Elvar and the Battle-Grim travel south. A meeting is held to decide who the next chief will be, and Elvar and Huld fight a holmganga duel to decide the new chief. Elvar wins, slaying Huld.

Elvar decides to travel south to Snakavik. On the way the Battle-Grim stop at the lakeside trading town of Starl to restock their supplies. While here they meet Orka and agree to help her in return for Orka getting a message to Glornir and the Bloodsworn: that Elvar wishes to hire them in her efforts to defeat Lik-Rifa.

Elvar continues her journey south to Snakavik to see her father, Jarl St?rr. She asks to hire his Berserkir guards, but he refuses. Instead, he attempts to take her captive and steal the treasure that the Battle-Grim have taken from Oskutree.

Ulfrir assumes his wolf-form and eats Jarl St?rr, a battle ensuing, during which Elvar slays her older brother, Thorun, and as her father's oldest heir she becomes the Seier-lord of her father's Berserkirs .

Biórr: Biórr is a Tainted rat-blood who has infiltrated the Battle-Grim. He orchestrated the abduction of Bjarn and left clues for the Raven-Feeders to track the Battle-Grim to Oskutree.

He slays Agnar, chief of the Battle-Grim, and sets their Tainted thralls free – Kráka the Seier-witch and Ilmur the Hundur -thrall. Then he leaves Oskutree with Lik-Rifa and the Raven-Feeders.

Biórr is reunited with his old comrades in the Raven-Feeders, Storolf Wartooth, Red Fain and his old lover, Myrk, sister of Ilska and Drekr. The Raven-Feeders travel east as Lik-Rifa leads them to her ancient hall of Nastrandir. She feels weak after three hundred years of captivity and has sustained injuries from her fight with her three-winged gaolers, and so wishes to recover in the safety of her halls. During the journey the Tainted children abducted for the ceremony to release Lik-Rifa are taught about their heritage, their tainted bloodlines and weapons craft.

Once they reach Nastrandir they discover that it is not empty, the rat-god Rotta is there waiting for them.

Lik-Rifa summons the vaesen to her, as they are her creations.

While Lik-Rifa is recovering, many gather to them, and Myrk arrives, vowing vengeance against Orka.

Guevarr, a servant of Skalk the Galdurman and Queen Helka, arrives. He tells Lik-Rifa of Skalk and Helka's plan to resurrect the eagle-god, Orna, and thrall her.

Biórr travels south. The warband splits, Lik-Rifa leading half to Darl, and Rotta leading the rest to Svelgarth, a fortress town ruled by Jarl Orlyg. They assault Svelgarth, and during this attack Biórr sees Orka and a handful of the Bloodsworn infiltrate the camp in search of Breca. There is a bloody fight and Biórr's friend Storolf Wartooth is slain. Biórr kills one of the Bloodsworn, Revna Hare-Legs, but Orka manages to escape with her son.

Guevarr: Guevarr is a drengr of Fellur village, nephew to the village's Jarl Sigrún. He had been pursuing Orka, Lif and Mord, and when he arrived at the Grimholt he found them as prisoners and slew Mord while he was spider-poisoned and chained to a wall. He fled when Orka unleashed the wolf in her blood and ended up on a boat with Skalk and the Grimholt survivors, rowing south for Darl.

Guevarr is ambitious and in Skalk he sees opportunity for advancement, so makes himself useful to the Galdurman. He becomes embroiled in the plans of Skalk and Queen Helka of Darl, but in an unpleasant turn of events he is strapped to a table in Skalk's Galdur tower and the Galdurman used his power to command a hyrndur – a type of large, aggressive hornet – to eat its way into Guevarr's veins, settling close to his heart. Skalk orders Guevarr to befriend Prince Hakon, Queen Helka's son, because he suspects Hakon is involved in some kind of plot against his mother, Queen Helka. Guevarr is still strapped to the table when Prince Jaromir of Iskidan attacks the Galdur tower, defeats Skalk and takes Vol for his own prisoner. Shortly after the Bloodsworn attack and Guevarr escapes during the chaos.

Guevarr applies himself to becoming part of Hakon's inner circle, and in time uncovers that Hakon is plotting with the dragon-born Drekr, the killer of Thorkel and brother of Ilska the Cruel. Hakon has been helping in the abduction and movement of Tainted children through Helka's realm.

In an attempt to remain useful and avoid death from Skalk and Helka, Guevarr volunteers to carry a message north to Drekr and Lik-Rifa. He meets the dragon-god and confesses all, telling her that Skalk and Lik-Rifa are planning to resurrect and thrall Orna the eagle-god, to use her in battle against Lik-Rifa.

In an act of betrayal against Skalk and Helka, Guevarr helps to orchestrate Lik-Rifa's attack against Darl. His aunt, Jarl Sigrún, slays Queen Helka and Guevarr slays Prince Hakon while Lik-Rifa descends upon the recently resurrected Orna and rips her to shreds.