Eir Haraldsdottir

Book excerpt: About the Book The collapse of King Harald’s family at the end of The King of the Northern Fells is now in the past, and new fates and fortunes have been fashioned for all. Princess Eir Haraldsdottir is now banished from the Northern Fells and has led an army over the mountains and has invaded the Southern Kingdom. If she ever hopes to return to her native land and reconcile with her father, she realizes she must make her way south to defeat the Pagan Alliance and its king in Avil Baden. Joined with her, though not a part of her army, is King Harald’s old friend, Inga Sigursdottir, a general commanding the small frontier force of the Northern Fells. Also fleeing the wrath of King Harald is the much maligned former Prince of Thornburg, Mattias Denson. He has come south not for war and plunder, but with the Lesti and Bjerne of the Fells who have joined the expedition to set their southern cousins free from the tyranny of the pagans of the Southern Kingdom. The Lesti are enslaved and abused; the Bjerne have been killed and scattered as pagans have encroached on the Bjerne natural habitat on the plains and in the birch forests. Mattias soon realizes that the pagan army of Eir Haraldsdottir and the northern army commanded by Inga Sigursdottir have no intention of freeing Lesti slaves and Bjerne beasts; they want to use the two factions for unknown reasons but mostly to serve them as they make war on Avil Baden and the Pagan Alliance. They and their armies have come south for plunder and riches, the fruits of war and conquest. There soon arises a split, and the armies begin to break apart as a new faction, the wiccans make their presence felt. The witches and spirit folk of the south soon become known as the armies break apart, one going south along the western mountains, pillaging as they go, while another army goes east to explore the mountains where they hope to find Lesti runaways and mountain Bjerne. Betrayal, intrigue and duplicity stand on every corner; friends are not always that, and people are often not who they seem. The second novel of the Chronicles of Mattias series, Eir Haraldsdottir, follows the exploits of the major characters from The King of the Northern Fells as they follow fate and their destinies into war and the unknown.