Prologue
THE NIGHT SKY FLICKERED with shades of green, at first jade and then cerulean, winking through chameleon colors and morphing into pink. Spears of silver lanced from the heavens, as if stars rained down onto the earth. The aurora borealis filled the expanse of the sky with unnatural hues illuminating the faces below.
“The armor of the Valkyries blesses this sacrifice,” a woman’s voice called out, low and commanding. “The gods have sent the solar winds to herald our new dawn.”
Shades of indigo and turquoise enlivened the Merry Dancers, as the aurora was known on the Orkney Islands in the far north of Scotland, closer to Norway than London. Here the people still lived close to the ocean and the sky, understanding the power of the wind to sweep away the past and bring renewal again
