Fire and Sword

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All my thanks to my readers, Alison Tokley and Sean Williams, and to my editors, Julia Stiles, Stephanie Smith and Debra Euler. Thanks to them this is a better book than it would otherwise have been. Many thanks also to my agents, Garth Nix and Russell Galen, for all their wondrous efforts on my behalf.

Hverr of kom Heráss á

hí a land gotna?

Fiskr ór fjanda vim svimandi,

fogl a fjanda lith galandi.

As whom came the god of war

to the land of men?

A fish from the torrent of enemies swimming,

a bird against a troop of enemies screaming.

—from the Eggjum gravestone, Sogn, Norway (based on translation by Peter Foote & David M. Wilson)

Chapter 1

In autumn, when the hot summer winds have passed and the fierce winter storms are yet to come, the Oceans of Grass is the most silent place on the continent of Theare. The occasional breeze will brush the yellow land but make no more sound than a lover’s whisper, a dying enemy’s curse. Even insects stop their chirruping and burrow deep underground, waiting for spring and fresh rain.

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