Chapter Fifty-Two: Elvar

Elvar watches in horror as Biorr stands over Agnar’s dying body, steals the keys, and frees Ilmur and Kráka from their collars. Declaring himself Tainted and loyal to Ilska, Biorr invites Elvar to join him. Elvar attacks, but Grend restrains her as the Raven-Feeders advance.

Elvar and Grend rejoin the Battle-Grim and form a shield wall against the larger Raven-Feeders. A vicious melee ensues; Elvar kills multiple foes before a spear pierces her shoulder. Grend saves her, dragging her behind the line as the Battle-Grim slowly push the enemy back between the wolf-mound and the wagons.

Behind the lines, Vorn and Uspa try to bar Ilska’s approach to Oskutreð. Ilska’s fire runes overwhelm Vorn, burning her alive, then blast Uspa aside. Ilska’s followers drag dozens of thrall-collared children onto the massive trapdoor. Reading from a red-bound book, Ilska leads a blood-rite, cutting her palm and the children’s, their collars flaring as blood seeps through the door.

The pounding below ceases, then erupts. The door splinters and explodes; bodies and debris scatter. From the ruin, winged women—warriors—emerge, and then Lik-Rifa bursts free, a rotting, colossal dragon. Two winged warriors attack, wounding her, but Ilska and Drekr cut down the golden-winged woman, and Lik-Rifa kills and devours the white-winged woman.

Lik-Rifa feeds, then descends and addresses Ilska’s kneeling warriors, transforming into a towering, ravaged woman. She rages at her long imprisonment, then resumes dragon form, yearning for wind and the hunt, and spirals into the southern sky. Ilska orders a swift muster, rounding up surviving children and carts before following after Lik-Rifa. Elvar and Grend, stunned and bloodied, realize the calamity they have unleashed.