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Imago:
What Persimmon calls me, amid the least or greatest dangers.

Inga:
She was half of the duo responsible for Peersdatter and Jorgensdatter’s
Eventyr
. A mighty fighter, and brave.

Innocence Gaunt:
Our son.

Ironhorn:
A Karvak general.

Ivar Garm:
Lord Mayor of Garmstad Town.

Jaska:
A girl who turned Innocence’s head in Oxiland.

Jegerhall:
The steading of Arnulf Pyre-Maker.

Jewelwolf:
Wife of the Grand Khan and a powerful leader in her own right. As if that wasn’t enough to make me nervous, also knowledgeable in magic. Sister of Steelfox.

Jokull Loftsson:
Strongest of the Oxiland chieftains.

Jotuncrown:
A settlement of humans in thrall to the troll-jarl in the Trollberg.

Joy:
What we all called A-Girl-Is-A-Joy.

Katta, called the Mad:
One of many names for the wandering monk of the Undetermined whom we knew. A big-hearted person, though I think he regarded me as a miscreant. Truly I have no idea why.

Kantenings:
The humans of the Bladed Isles, excepting the Vuos, who stand apart.

Kantenjord:
It means something like “Edge-lands.” Outsiders know it better as the Bladed Isles.

Karvak Realm:
The empire of the Grand Khan.

Karvaks:
The mightiest nomads of the steppes.

Klarvik:
A town in Soderland.

Kolli the Cackling:
One of the Nine Wolves.

Kollr:
A young follower of the old gods in Oxiland, whom Innocence befriended.

Kpalamaa:
A mighty realm of the South. If Qiangguo is not the world’s most advanced nation, it is this.

Laksfjord:
A surprisingly pleasant community near the Morkskag.

Langfjord:
The steading of Kolli the Cackling.

Lardermen:
Elite group of foamreavers, who made their name bringing supplies past a blockade.

Leaftooth:
Head monk of the Peculiar Peaks.

Liron Flint:
Explorer, treasure hunter, friend.

Loftsson’s Hall:
Steading of Oxiland’s most powerful chieftain, with many allied folk nearby.

Lysefoss:
A settlement beside a spectacular waterfall. I’d have appreciated it more if we hadn’t been running for our lives.

Malin:
She was half of the duo responsible for Peersdatter and Jorgensdatter’s
Eventyr
. A brave soul. An unusual mind.

Meteor-Plum:
The guardian of the Scroll of Years sometimes goes by this name.

Mirabad:
Name for both a great city and the caliphate it commands. Once its power made the world tremble; its wealth and learning still make the world envious.

Morkskag, the:
The haunted forest that divides “civilized” Svardmark from the Gamellaw.

Mossbeard:
A troll.

Muggur Barrow-Friend:
One of the Nine Wolves.

Muninn Crowbeard:
Once a foamreaver styled “Surehand.” He changed, more than once.

Nan:
An old tavernkeeper and Runewalker. Wife of Freidar. Those two were kind to Innocence and did as much as anyone could to protect their homeland. I, a selfish man, am in awe.

Nine Smilodons:
The Karvak soldier we traveled with for a time.

Nonyemeko:
Captain of
Anansi
.

Northwing:
A taiga shaman in service to Steelfox. Powerful as friend or enemy. I would know.

Numi:
A Swan-church novitiate whom Innocence befriended.

Ostoland:
A heavily wooded island, of somewhat insular folk.

Ottmar Bloodslake:
One of the Nine Wolves.

Oxiland:
A volcanic realm, and some associated islands, in Kantenjord’s northwest. A bleak country, settled by stubborn people with notions of democracy. Clearly they are mad. It’s tempting to join them.

Painter of Clouds:
Swanlings use this term for what Mirabad’s people call the All-Now; they got the name from the People of the Brush.

Peersdatter and Jorgensdatter’s
Eventyr
:
A surprisingly useful book of folktales.

Peik:
A boy from Klarvik, by his own account absolutely the most truthful person that this or any other world has known.

Persimmon:
See Gaunt. She is the one who should be writing this down; she has the gift for words. But she forgets little and doesn’t see the need. She remembers the time I did this, and the time I did that, and the other thing. And yet she is still with me.

Qiangguo:
A vast realm of the East. If Kpalamaa is not the world’s most advanced nation, it is this.

Qurca:
Steelfox’s peregrine falcon, bonded to her spirit.

Rafnar Dragon-Axe:
One of the Nine Wolves.

Ragnar:
Half-brother of Corinna of Soderland.

Red Mirror:
A Karvak soldier.

Roisin:
A Swanling priestess. A fine person, surely, but a little too cozy with slavers.

Rolf:
A young Swanling of Oxiland, whom Innocence befriended.

Rubblewrack:
A troll, or so she appeared.

Runethane, or Runemarked Queen or King:
The one who commands the energies of the Great Chain of Unbeing.

Runewalkers:
Traditional mages of Kantenjord. Their power derives from tracings of mystic runes. Some of their tracings are enormous.

Ruvsa:
Pirate queen of Larderland.

Schismglass:
A magic sword, akin to Crypttongue but antagonistic.

Skalagrim the Bloody:
One of the Nine Wolves. I’ll say no more about him.

Skrymir Hollowheart:
Lord of trolls in Spydbanen and, effectively, everywhere else.

Skyggeskag, the:
An elder forest in Soderland, cousin to the Morkskag.

Snow Pine:
Once known as Next-One-a-Boy or simply Next One. A bandit of Qiangguo and a companion to Persimmon and me. Our best friend.

Smokecoast:
The largest settlement of Oxiland.

Soderland:
Strongest and richest of the local kingdoms, principalities, chiefdoms, and what-have-yous. Therefore, the biggest target.

Splintrevej:
Maze-like scattering of islands in the heart of Kantenjord.

Spydbanen:
The northeastern of Kantenjord’s main islands, and home to its most violent jarls, including the troll-jarl. The Vuos people live in its extreme north.

Steelfox:
A princess of the Karvak Realm, determined to conquer the Earthe in the memory of her father, the first Grand Khan. Even with all that in mind, I liked her.

Storfosna:
A town in Soderland.

Stormhamn:
A town in Soderland.

Sturla’s Steading:
The home of Huginn and Hekla.

Styr Surturson:
An Oxiland chieftain.

Surtfell:
The great volcano of Oxiland.

Svanstad:
The capital of Soderland and largest city in the Bladed Isles.

Svardmark:
Kantenjord’s largest island, home to what passes for its civilized lands.

Swan Goddess:
The deity said to have sacrificed herself to save the world. Accounted the daughter of the Painter of Clouds.

Swanisle:
An island nation, closer to the continent than are the Bladed Isles. Gaunt’s homeland. Legend has it it’s the petrified body of the Swan Goddess. I am not weighing in on this.

Swanling:
The Kantenings call the Swan Goddess’s followers this.

Tlepolemus:
A fellow far-traveled adventurer who became a Larderman.

Torfa:
Jokull Loftsson’s wife. By report, an exemplar of Kantening ferocity.

Trollberg, the:
The troll mountain-fortress beside Jotuncrown.

uldra:
A varied nonhuman folk who sometimes dwell underground and sometimes in other worlds entirely.

Undetermined, the:
An enlightened being venerated in the East.

Varmvik:
A town in Soderland.

Vatnar:
An important churchman of Oxiland.

Vinderhus:
A whaling community in Oxiland.

Vuos:
A human community distinct from the Kantenings. They herd reindeer and have shamanistic beliefs.

Vuk:
A man of the Wagonlords on the continent, my comrade at the Gull-Jarl’s steading.

Walking Stick:
An itinerant official of Qiangguo. Also a wulin warrior, capable of esoteric combat moves. A good ally, and a bad enemy, to have. He’s been both.

Wiglaf:
A legendary warrior, whose fate was tied up with the swords Crypttongue and Schismglass. I don’t envy him.

Winterjarl, the:
Harbinger of Fimbulwinter and Ragnarok, or so we thought.

Wormeye:
A troll.

Xembala:
A paradisiacal eastern land, a source of ironsilk. There are times I’d like to be there.

Yngvarr Thrall-Taker:
One of the Nine Wolves. He surprised us at the end.

PROLOGUE

ASH-LAD

The Lardermen fished the castaway from the sea’s gray clutches in a place where no island rose and no wreckage lay. The maelstrom that men named the Draugmaw was not so far from that place, yet it was strange to find no broken remnant of the boy’s vessel.

“There now,” said the captain, not unkindly. “You’re warm and safe, drinking my aquavit and eating the finest Larderman gruel. Who might you be?”

“Deadfall,” the ashen-faced lad muttered between shivers and sips and bites, looking around the deck in fear. “Deadfall.” The boy, who looked no older than thirteen, seemed to spy little to cheer him. The sky of fading summer was a billowing tapestry of white and gray, shading to black. The pirates below were a rough-looking bunch to be sure, scowling below the black flag of the skull and crossed meat cleavers.

“Anyone make anything of that?”

“That’s southern talk,” said the mate. “The part I can make out anyway. Something about death and falling. I don’t think he’s from Kantenjord at all.”

“Death. Falling. A boy from nowhere. This is ill-omened. I had a dream, you see. A girl riding a narwhal whispered to me to come here. . . . It wasn’t far off our course. But I do not like this.”

The captain was a man of the Swan, and his once-yearly confessions in Svanstad were long and specific and left the unlucky priests in their boxes as pale as the snows of the Trollberg. Yet he bore around his neck both the silver token of the Swan and its opposite number, the iron axe of the heathen god Torden. For the Swan’s mercy was a great prize, but in the Bladed Isles with its troll-haunted ways it paid to remember the lore of the grandfathers.

“We sail to Fiskegard,” the captain said. “The fishermen there can take him in. I trust you’ll remember, lad, the kindness of Captain Erik Glint.” For something cold as a troll’s seeing-well told Erik Glint he’d be hearing from this boy again. That indeed they all would.