Warriors of the Storm (the Saxon Stories, #9)

This novel in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales series, set in early tenth-century Britain, follows Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon lord who worships the Norse gods, as he confronts a massive Norse invasion. Bebbanburg is Uhtred's ancestral fortress in Northumbria, stolen by his uncle's family during his childhood, and its recovery has been his lifelong purpose. He commands the garrison at Ceaster (modern Chester) on behalf of Æthelflaed, the ruler of Mercia and daughter of the late King Alfred.

One night, Finan, Uhtred's closest companion and an Irish exile, wakes him with the news that Brunanburh, a fort guarding the River Mærse, is ablaze. At dawn he discovers that a large Norse fleet has sailed upriver in darkness, guided past mudbanks by disguised merchant ships claiming to carry plague. The invaders have burned the Mercian fleet and the wharf. From prisoners, Uhtred learns the fleet belongs to Ragnall Ivarson, a feared warlord known as the Sea King, who has brought roughly twelve hundred warriors to conquer Britain. Uhtred's daughter Stiorra is married to Ragnall's brother Sigtryggr, who has refused to join the invasion.

During the skirmish, Finan kills a wounded Irish warrior he believes to be his own kin and reveals the reason for his exile: As a young prince, he fell in love with his brother Conall's wife. They fled, were hunted by the powerful Uí Néill tribe, and Finan was sold into slavery while the woman was killed. Conall now leads Uí Néill warriors serving Ragnall as both mercenaries and hostages.

Ragnall occupies Eads Byrig, an ancient hilltop fort near Ceaster, and begins fortifying it. Uhtred discovers a bridge of boats funneling men northward into Northumbria, where quarreling Norse and Danish lords lack a strong ruler. He deduces that Eads Byrig is a diversion: Ragnall's true goal is to recruit a Northumbrian army before returning to assault Ceaster.

Bishop Leofstan, the new head of Ceaster's see, arrives with a procession of orphans and beggars. Sincere and humble, he wins Uhtred's grudging respect. His wife, known as Sister Gomer, keeps her face hidden beneath layers of cloaks. Æthelflaed then arrives with over eight hundred warriors, including Merewalh, her military commander; Osferth, her illegitimate half-brother; and Cynlæf Haraldson, a young West Saxon likely to marry her daughter. In council, Uhtred warns that Ragnall's forces have swelled to over two thousand.

Before Easter, Ragnall displays his army before Ceaster's walls. Among the enemy leaders are Conall and Haesten, Uhtred's lifelong nemesis. Ragnall leaves a grim gift: the severed head of Uhtred's scout in a gospel box.

Uhtred leads seven hundred men to Eads Byrig and confirms that Ragnall has crossed northward with most of his force, leaving Haesten to hold the fort through a sham conversion to Christianity. Uhtred refuses to honor a truce he did not approve, storms the fort, and overwhelms the garrison. Prince Æthelstan, King Edward of Wessex's eldest son and Uhtred's protégé, kills Haesten in single combat after Uhtred strips away the Dane's sword, denying him a warrior's death. Uhtred places forty-three severed enemy heads on stakes around the hilltop as a warning.

Ragnall returns on Easter morning, reinforced by Brida of Dunholm, Uhtred's first lover and now an aging pagan who rules a Northumbrian fortress and hates Christians with fierce intensity. Ragnall executes forty-three Saxon prisoners in retaliation, and Brida curses Uhtred before the walls. The final prisoner revealed is Uhtred's eldest son, Father Oswald, a Christian priest Uhtred disowned years earlier. Brida has gelded him out of hatred. Meanwhile, a beautiful prostitute named Mus, notable for an apple-shaped birthmark on her forehead, causes brawls among warriors in Ceaster before vanishing without a trace.

With his son in the care of Leofstan's lay sisterhood, Uhtred argues for an immediate counterattack. Leofstan passionately supports him, and Æthelflaed orders nearly eight hundred men to ride out. In a thunderstorm at dawn, they fall on Ragnall's encampments, killing or wounding several hundred while losing only eleven men. Ragnall retreats eastward.

Uhtred's recovering son reveals that Ragnall and Sigtryggr are enemies because Ragnall demanded Stiorra as his wife, and Sigtryggr refused. The Uí Néill, allied with Ragnall, are now besieging Sigtryggr's fort at Loch Cuan in Ireland. Æthelflaed proposes sending a small boat to rescue Stiorra, and Uhtred publicly agrees but secretly plans a far larger expedition. Before dawn, he commandeers a captured Norse warship and sails for Ireland, defying Æthelflaed's orders.

Inside Loch Cuan, Uhtred captures the blockade ships by deception. Their masters, whose families Ragnall holds hostage, swear loyalty to Sigtryggr. Uhtred reaches the besieged fort and reunites with Stiorra, who has kept the Uí Néill at bay by arranging ancient skulls as a "ghost fence" and performing eerie incantations that terrify the besiegers. He reveals his plan to make Sigtryggr King of Northumbria. The arrangement serves Uhtred's immediate goal of reclaiming Bebbanburg with a friendly king's support, though privately he expects Sigtryggr's kingdom to be absorbed eventually into the united England that Alfred envisioned. Sigtryggr accepts.

The ships make a perilous crossing back to Britain. Leaving women and children at Cair Ligualid (Carlisle), Uhtred and over three hundred warriors march east toward Eoferwic (York). They enter the city by flying Sigtryggr's red ax banner, identical to Ragnall's. Inside, Brida rules through terror: She has crucified Christians and blinded two small girls to use as false oracles. When Brida orders Uhtred's granddaughter blinded, Stiorra stabs Brida's servant with a hidden seax, a short single-edged blade. Uhtred's men seize the hall, Sigtryggr takes the throne, and Stiorra kills Brida in single combat.

With Eoferwic secured, Uhtred marches south with fewer than four hundred men, hoping to trap Ragnall between his force and a pursuing Mercian army. No Mercians come: Cynlæf, left in command, has refused to enter Northumbria. Uhtred takes refuge in an old Roman fort at the junction of two rivers, outnumbered roughly three to one. He also learns that Mus was Sister Gomer, the bishop's wife, her identity confirmed by the apple-shaped birthmark.

On the morning of battle, Finan, dressed in Uhtred's finest armor, rides alone to the Irish contingent, kills Conall's champion in seconds, then humiliates Conall twice before both armies without killing him. The Irish refuse to fight. Sigtryggr releases eight hostage wives to their husbands in Ragnall's ranks, shattering his hold over those men. Half the enemy hesitates.

Recognizing that he must prevent Ragnall's remaining warriors from storming the fort and rallying the waverers, Uhtred orders his men out of the defenses and charges, shouting "For Mus!" His warriors, amused by the invocation of the woman who caused such chaos in Ceaster, burst into laughter, and the sight of laughing attackers unnerves the enemy. As Uhtred's force tears through the front ranks, the freed men and the Irish turn against Ragnall from behind. Sigtryggr kills his brother in single combat.

Uhtred returns to Ceaster and presents Ragnall's severed head to Æthelflaed. He introduces Rorik, a boy he wounded in the battle and has adopted as a ward. He rebukes Cynlæf for cowardice and announces that Sigtryggr, now King of Northumbria, has sworn peace with Mercia. When Æthelflaed asks where he is going, Uhtred replies that he is the Lord of Bebbanburg and has business in the north, turning toward the fortress whose recovery has shaped his entire life.