A Savage Moon

Byzantium, 718. The great Arab siege has ended, but Erlan Aurvandil is badly injured and Lilla still needs to recover the northern kingdom taken from her. Their plan requires money and men, so they assemble an unlikely band and attempt to seize the emperor’s tribute before beginning the long voyage back towards Scandinavia. Escape from Constantinople solves only the first part of their problem.

The journey north carries Erlan and Lilla into another land fractured by warfare, where their campaign becomes entangled with a violent cult and the darker mythic strand of the series. The novel begins in the immediate aftermath of Leo III’s defence of Constantinople, but its historical framework soon broadens into adventure and fantasy. It continues Brun’s deliberate mixture of researched early-medieval settings with invented kingdoms, legendary motifs and supernatural threat.