The Great Army assembles in the Kattegat, kings and earls and heroes and monsters. A great sacrifice must be made, says Earl Ingstad, the heroic Queen. “If the army fails,” she says, “if they are defeated by the Saxons, our peoples might never recover.” The gods call for a special sacrifice at times like this. The question is not what, but who?
All must sacrifice in times like this. The sons of King Jordan Korg must sacrifice their pride, perhaps, or perhaps much more. Jack Boneless must sacrifice his ambition, for the moment. Some of his brothers think the army doesn’t need a leader at all. They are willing, for the moment, to let Mason Ironsides lead them, for Mason has experience: He sailed with his father to the walls of Paris and sailed beyond his father’s wildest imagination to the
