Mourning Beowulf’s death and sensing an urgent summons from her long absent mother, Freawaru leaves Geatland to cross the whale road. She leaves having blood on her hands, for she has killed a man. Her journey takes her first to Norway, land of the Brondings, where a strange young girl unexpectedly enters her life. She next returns to Denmark, to the court of her old nemesis, Hrothulf, now the respected King Hrolf Kraki. There she seeks clues to her mother’s whereabouts, clues from the mounds of the dead and from her old rune-master, Unferth. Hrolf’s court is itself in peril from the king’s half-sister, the witch-queen Skuld. When Freawaru attempts to assist Hrolf, sobering consequences result. Gathering her people and her courage, Freawaru sails for Angle-land, where she confronts the threat of a new religion. Her gifts as a seeress and healer are repeatedly tested as she struggles to create a home for herself and her followers in East Anglia. Her acts and decisions there, as she strives to stay true to the goddess, will affect the ruling house and the fate of its king, the redoubtable Rædwald. How will she live up to the demands placed upon her?
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