A Tale of Scorched Ash and Elm

The gods have abandoned the world. Their relics have not. Over a century ago, the Wexians came to Alfheim with chains, steel, and a dragon wreathed in fire. The elven regent queen Anya walked into the flames with Sumarbrander, the sword of Freyr, and vanished. Alfheim fell. Its magic broke. Stories say the sword was lost.

Now that same shadow has crossed the sea. When war-chief Gunvald returns from raiding to find his home in Hammerfel reduced to ash and his wife butchered, vengeance is the only thing left to him. But the ruin at the heart of his village is no ordinary raid: stone has melted, the dead are marked by impossible fire, and survivors whisper of a chained dragon in Wexian colors.

Far from the fjords, Balt, a hunted half-elf born of Wexian conquest, has spent a decade striking at the empire that made him. Rumors of Sumarbrander draw him north, toward a weapon that could finally turn slaughter back on its makers.

Between them stands Glyrna, a young V闤va who has lost her home, her faith, and her priestess-mothers in one night. The Wexians want to use her seidr to find the sword. Balti wants her help to keep it from them. Gunvald needs any hope he can get.

Above them all, Aric of Wexia, dragon-rider and heir to generations of blood, is determined to succeed where his forefathers failed: break the last wild magics of the north and claim a god's power as his own.

As raiders, witches, half-bloods, and warlords collide, one truth burns through the smoke: The gods may be gone. Their war isn't.