The Fury of the Gods

The third and final installment of the Bloodsworn Trilogy is set in Vigrið, a Norse-inspired world where ancient gods fought and died in a cataclysmic event called the Guðfalla (god-fall). Their descendants, known as the Tainted, carry god-blood that grants supernatural abilities but are hunted and enslaved with iron thrall-collars. The dragon-god Lik-Rifa has been freed from centuries of imprisonment and seeks to dominate Vigrið, aided by her brother Rotta the rat-god and her dragon-born children. Opposing her is a fragile coalition led by Elvar Fire-Fist, who has thralled the wolf-god Ulfrir with an iron collar and commands a growing war-host.

Varg, a former thrall with wolf-god blood who has joined the Bloodsworn mercenary band, sits at the fortress of Valdai in Iskidan while Vol, the Bloodsworn's Seiðr-witch (a wielder of inherited magical power), performs an akáll, a ceremony revealing the last moments of his murdered sister Frøya's life. Varg watches a huntsman named Brák Trolls-Bane gut Frøya on the orders of Drekr, a dragon-born warrior, and vows vengeance. A message arrives from Elvar offering to hire the Bloodsworn to slay Lik-Rifa. Glornir, the Bloodsworn's bear-blooded chief and brother of Orka's murdered husband Thorkel, polls every member, and all agree.

Meanwhile, Orka Skullsplitter, a fearsome Úlfhéðnar (wolf-blooded Tainted warrior) and former Bloodsworn chief, lies captured after freeing her son Breca from Lik-Rifa's forces. Rotta beats her for information about Ulfrir's location. When Rotta threatens to kill Spert, a loyal vaesen (magical creature) devoted to Orka, she reveals Ulfrir is at Snakavik. Rotta kills Spert anyway. He grants Myrk, Drekr's sister, permission to execute Orka, but Jarl Orlyg of Svelgarth launches a surprise attack with Berserkir (bear-blooded Tainted warriors) and Úlfhéðnar from the treeline. Orka kills Myrk, reunites with Breca, and escapes on Orlyg's longship.

In Darl, Lik-Rifa consolidates her conquest. The drengr (oathsworn warrior) Guðvarr and his aunt Jarl Sigrún serve the dragon-god, who dispatches them to hunt Princess Estrid and Skalk, a Galdurman (a practitioner of rune-magic), both of whom fled Darl's fall. Their pursuit leads into the Jarnvidr (Iron Wood), where they encounter hostile Froa-spirits, tree-dwelling beings created by Snaka, the dead father of the gods. They find Estrid and Skalk, who offer to serve as spies inside Ulfrir's camp.

Elvar, now Jarl of Snakavik after her father's death, holds Ulfrir and his winged daughter Skuld with thrall-collars and commands Berserkir thralls. Her counselor is Hrung, a magically animated giant's head whose body still carries the ancient poison he once used to destroy Snaka by filling himself with it and hurling himself into the god's mouth. After learning Lik-Rifa has taken Darl and killed the eagle-god Orna, Elvar accepts Ulfrir's counsel to relocate to the Wolfdales, his ancient den in the Iron Wood, where tunnels and forest cover would neutralize the dragon's aerial advantage. A crisis strikes when Grend, Elvar's lifelong guardian, is exposed as Tainted. Devastated, Elvar collars him but keeps him alive.

The Bloodsworn's voyage is complicated by pursuing longships from Iskidan. In a ferocious sea battle, Vol and Iva, a Seiðr-witch freed from Jaromir's captivity who has joined the Bloodsworn, combine their powers to shatter an enemy drakkar (longship) with ice-runes. Orlyg's ship arrives with Orka aboard, and together they rout the fleet. Orka and Glornir embrace in reunion, and Glornir meets his nephew Breca for the first time. During the voyage, Varg formally takes the Bloodsworn oath in a Seiðr-ceremony, sealing his belonging.

All forces converge at the Wolfdales, where Ulfrir opens the great stone doors, awakening stone-carved wolf guardians, and Elvar establishes her war-host in a vast underground hall built around a great ash tree. Grend privately reveals he swore a blood oath to Elvar's mother to always protect Elvar, hiding his Tainted nature so he could never be thralled and separated from her. Lik-Rifa marches into the Jarnvidr with a massive army. Elvar's raiding parties ambush the approaching forces through tunnels, but Lik-Rifa retaliates by destroying Froa-spirits and annihilating the moored fleet. Elvar's brother Broðir conspires with others to assassinate Elvar, but Orka saves her by hurling a hand-axe into Broðir's back.

Elvar then makes her pivotal decision. She calls Ulfrir forward and proposes that if freed, he must swear the blóð svarið, the blood oath: to never use his power unjustly, to protect all people equally, and to enforce justice throughout Vigrið. Ulfrir swears. Uspa, Vol's sister and a Seiðr-witch, performs the binding ceremony. Elvar unlocks every thrall-collar, speaking the ancient words of freedom to each Tainted person. Glornir reveals that every Bloodsworn member is Tainted, removing the collars they wore as disguise. Elvar privately frees Grend and embraces him.

The first assault on Wolfdales is brutal, with ladders at the bridge, spertus (venomous creatures) stinging defenders along the embankments, and trolls using hurled weapons as climbing holds. Elvar's defenders retreat through the stone doors into the great hall. That night, Rotta infiltrates through a sealed entrance using Seiðr-words he tortured from Ulfrir's daughter Valkyrie centuries earlier. Guided by the traitors Skalk and Estrid, Rotta reaches Elvar's bedchamber with Biórr, a guilt-ridden rat-blooded Raven-Feeder (one of Lik-Rifa's Tainted followers). While Biórr duels Elvar, Rotta creeps behind her and cuts her throat with a seax (a long knife). She falls from the stairwell, dead. Rotta opens the great doors from inside, and Lik-Rifa's forces flood in.

Inside the hall, the Froa-spirit Gelta, awakened from the great ash tree, binds Lik-Rifa with massive roots, but Rotta sets the tree ablaze, killing Gelta. Skuld stabs her mother Orna's scissors into Lik-Rifa's eye. Orka pursues Drekr up the burning stairwell while Glornir battles Skalk, whose Galdur-staff (a rune-magic implement) Vol shatters with Seiðr-runes. On the hilltop, Rotta opens the roof barrier and Lik-Rifa flies out, carrying him to Snakavik, where she resurrects Snaka from his ancient bones. The father of the gods rises as a colossal serpent, and his return causes earthquakes that collapse the great hall. Ulfrir leads survivors through a tunnel while Orka leaps from the crumbling hilltop into the river.

At Lik-Rifa's camp, Snaka appears in human form and asserts dominion over his children. Rotta poisons his food, and Lik-Rifa pins his hand while Rotta cuts his throat. They carve out Snaka's heart, intending to consume it and gain immense power, but Vesli, a small winged vaesen loyal to Orka, snatches the heart and flies into the darkness. Ulfrir's forces charge from the treeline.

The final battle is savage. Varg kills Brák Trolls-Bane, pinning him to a tree with his own sword. Two giant ravens, Grok and Kló, who had served as scouts for the heroes' forces, seize Rotta and drop him from the sky. Lif, a fisherman companion of Orka, kills Guðvarr in a duel, avenging his father and brother. Orka coats a seax with frost-spider venom and paralyzes Drekr; she teaches Breca where to cut, and together they push both seaxes into Drekr's throat, avenging Thorkel. Biórr reunites the captive child Bjarn with his mother Uspa. Taras, a bull-blooded Tainted warrior freed from Jaromir's service alongside Iva, hurls Hrung, a magically animated giant's head, into Lik-Rifa's open mouth. Hrung carries the same poison that killed Snaka centuries ago. The dragon swallows, the poison spreads, and Lik-Rifa crashes dead. Ulfrir howls in victory. But Glornir is fatally wounded by the dragon's claw and dies in Orka's arms.

In the aftermath, roughly 500 warriors survive. Rotta's body has vanished, meaning the rat-god escaped. Elvar is mourned as Chainbreaker. Orka leads the surviving Bloodsworn to her old steading, where Glornir is buried beside his brother Thorkel's barrow, and Spert beside them both. Varg proposes that the Bloodsworn need a permanent home where warriors can raise children. Vol suggests rebuilding Orka's steading, and Orka agrees. Røkia, a wolf-blooded Bloodsworn warrior who trained Varg in weapons craft, tells Varg she chooses him, and they become lovers. The Bloodsworn begin to envision a future beyond war: a home for their pack.