Nine: Year 1016 AFE; Rising Tide

Ten: Year 1016 AFE; Homecomings and Birthdays

Eleven: Year 1016 AFE; Interlude

Twelve: Year 1016 AFE; On the Move

Thirteen: Year 1016 AFE; At the Ready

Fourteen: Year 1016 AFE; There and Back Again

Fifteen: Year 1016 AFE; Unpleasant Surprises

Sixteen: Year 1016 AFE; A Plea from the East

Seventeen: Year 1016 AFE; The Great Championship Match

Eighteen: Year 1016 AFE; Tightening Screws

Nineteen: Year 1016 v; Born to Trouble

Twenty: Year 1016 AFE; As the Sparks Fly Upward

Twenty-one: Year 1016 AFE

Twenty-two: Year 1016 AFE

Twenty-three: Year 1016 AFE

Twenty-four: Year 1016 AFE

Twenty-five: Year 1016 AFE

Twenty-six: Year 1016 AFE

PROLOGUE: YEAR 1013
AFTER THE FOUNDING OF THE EMPIRE OF ILKAZAR CASTLE GREYFELLS IN DUCHY GREYFELLS, IN NORTHERN ITASKIA

The Colonel stalked through the quiet corridors, each step charged with the nervous energy of a caged panther. Servants got out of his path, turned to watch after he passed. His tension surrounded him with an aura of danger.

He reached the door of the chamber to which he had been summoned. He stared at it, rose onto the balls of his feet, settled back. He was afraid of what might lie on the other side. This was more than the portal to a room. It was a doorway to tomorrow, and he didn’t like the smell of it.

Something was afoot. He had come to the castle last evening, and had found it infested with tension. The Duke was planning something. His people were scared. All the recent dukes had become involved in schemes that failed, and each failure had brought violence down on the family and its retainers.

The Colonel steeled himself, knocked.

“Enter.”

He stepped inside. Six men were seated along the sides of a long table. The Duke himself sat at the table’s head. He gestured, indicating the seat at the table’s foot. The Colonel sat down.

The Duke said, “Now I’ll end the speculation. Our cousin Inger has received an offer of marriage.”

One of the others asked, “That’s why all the whispers and night messengers? Pardon me, Dane, but that seems a little….”

“Let me expand. You’ll see why it’s a matter for the highest family councils.

“Our cousin nursed in a hospital during the siege of the city by Shinsan’s forces. She became romantically involved with a patient. Rather a torrid affair, I gather, though she was understandably reluctant to part with details. When the siege broke and the war moved southward, she thought it was over. She heard nothing from the man. The usual story. Used by a soldier who moved on.

“But four days ago she received a proposal of marriage from the man. She thought it over, then came to me for advice.

“Gentlemen, the gods have smiled on the family at last. They’ve handed us a golden opportunity. Our cousin’s suitor is Bragi Ragnarson, Marshall of Kavelin, who commanded the allied armies during the Great Eastern Wars.”