Chapter Eighteen: Varg

Guided by Svik and Røkia through Liga, Varg buys clothing, gear, and an axe, while receiving blunt lessons on practical warcraft—helmets and wound care are as crucial as blades. He feels the pull between his oath of vengeance for Frøya and this new path but accepts it as the way forward.

Back at the mead hall, Varg cleans up and arms himself. Svik gives him a shield from Glornir, who then publicly gifts Varg Aslog’s spear, marking Varg’s place on the oar bench. As the Bloodsworn march to the docks, Torvik explains Logur’s prosperity and the Bloodsworn’s past with Skullsplitter and the Vackna Horn relic.

At the waterfront, Jaromir and his lamellar-clad druzhina block the Bloodsworn, demanding Sulich. When Glornir refuses, Jaromir fires—his arrow is split by Glornir’s long-axe—then orders a volley. The Bloodsworn form a shield wall under fire, Einar fells a rider with a spear, and cavalry charges crash into their ranks.

From the rear, more riders attack. Varg fumbles his helmet and forgets the leather sheath on his spear, blunting his first strike. He then abandons his shield, leaps onto a rider’s horse, and kills the warrior by driving his seax into a gap in the lamellar, taking the saddle amid the chaos as Edel’s hounds help bring down mounts.

Jarl Logur’s blue-shielded guards arrive and the fighting stills as three great drakkar bearing the eagle of Queen Helka glide into the fjord. With Jaromir poised and the Bloodsworn braced, Helka’s arrival turns a dockside clash into a looming crisis for Liga.