So what happened in The Throne of Ice & Ash again? Here’s a story recap.

The Crown of Fire & Fury comes out next week (2/22)! To ease your transition back into the Runewar Saga, read the below to see where we left off with our heroes…

RECAP OF THE THRONE OF ICE & ASH

After Oakharrow was attacked with sorcerous fire and the Harrowhall destroyed, Bjorn and Aelthena, children of the jarl, went their separate ways to reckon with the aftermath and reconcile the loss of their family.

Bjorn went into the Teeth seeking their attackers and hoping to claim vengeance. After a harrowing journey through the wintry Teeth, he and his party, the Hunters in the White, reached the valley where the Jotun, the self-fashioned king of the barbars, had made camp. But as Bjorn had seen in a vision, the Jotun and his army had already abandoned the vale to head west — toward Oakharrow. 

Knowing he could not return to defend the jarlheim in time, Bjorn, along with their barbar allies, the Skyardi, decided to strike a blow against the Jotun, destroying the Chasm from which he mined the sorcerous dust that produced his dragonfire. But the Chasm was not left unguarded. A battle with jotunmen, humans made bestial by exposure to the Chasm-fog, and a greatbear left Bjorn’s friend Keld and many others of their company dead. Bjorn, after losing his courage amid the battle, found it again when he entered the mists of the Chasm.

Having destroyed the pit, his Hunters in the White disbanded. Two of their surviving members, the lawspeaker’s son Egil and the elder and famed veteran Vedgif, return for Oakharrow. Bjorn, the priest Yonik, the jesters Loridi and Seskef, and the barbar leader Hoarfrost head for Eildursprall, where they hope to learn more about the jotunar, the giants of myth they find as their enemies, and to train Bjorn in the Sight, a magic he appears to strongly possess.

Aelthena, meanwhile, became the jarl’s heir in her brother’s absence. While Bjorn sought their enemies afar, she tracked down the traitors in their midst. Her search led her to Yaethun Brashurson, lawspeaker of the jarlheim and father to Egil. Refusing the blame, Yaethun told her of the enemy behind the attack on the Harrowhall, a man he only knew by name and reputation: the Jotun, King of Chieftains, who was rumored to have united the barbars of the Teeth.

But as Aelthena searched for her family’s murderers, events in the city quickly unfolded to undermine her authority. The rebel Skarl Thundson led his clan, the Vurgs, to take control of Oakharrow. And so when the Jotun and his army arrived at the jarlheim’s gate, it was Skarl who faced him, while Aelthena watched from afar. She saw then that “the Jotun” was not meant as a title alone: for their enemy was no man, but a giant of myth, who stood taller than the walls of Oakharrow. With an army at his back and dragonfire at his beckoning, the Jotun claimed Oakharrow with scant resistance. 

Aelthena, knowing no way to fight such a powerful enemy, fled with her faithful guardian, Frey, her father Lord Bor, the jarl’s thrall Uljana, and the devious smuggler Bastor. They head for Petyrsholm, a city in the center of the Baegardian valley, where the jarls have gathered to determine how they will face the threats against their nation.

In The Crown of Fire and Fury, two new points of view are introduced. One is a character you have already met: Bastor, or Alabastor Ragnarson, the heir to the Jarl of Ragnarsglade. Though he had disguised himself as a rogue while doing his father’s misdeeds in Oakharrow, aiding Yaethun Brashurson and the Jotun in undermining the jarlheim, Bastor had sought to make amends to Aelthena by aiding her in her quest for justice. Now, having revealed both his and his father’s roles in Oakharrow’s destruction to Aelthena, he finds himself returning to the very father he earlier disavowed.

The second new point of view is from a previously unseen character, a woman from Ha-Sypt named Sehdra. I’ll let her tell her own story, but suffice to say, her journey is quite relevant to the rest of the tale.

Now, let the saga continue…