The sacred mysteries essential to Viking survival will be lost if Inge Andersdottir cannot find a daughter to inherit the ancient wisdom. Inge and her husband Karl-Eirik adopt Thora, a young thrall with skaldic (poetic) powers and more. Thora kills a glasscaster and the king condemns her to Lesser Outlawry: a long season of exile to the rivers of Russia and then Istanbul - on Karl's boat, The Seafarers. Reluctantly, Inge agrees to go along and finds a stormy voyage - a grueling portage, an encounter with the Overlord of Kiev, her former lover, with a suspected Greek spy and an attack by the...