When I began to volunteer at the library at which I now work, this cover was in the "New Books" section. The earth-toned colors and curiously titled tome arrested my attention. It has been two and a half years since that day, and I have just now finished it.
The book concerns the two mercenary cousins, Raef and Conn, and the trouble that they find when contracted to the whims of other men. The narrative follows three masters, each more distant than the last.
Raef was the son of a slave woman, and is gifted with unexplained senses - He 'feels' his surroundings and has an intuition for impending danger. He uses his skills sometimes to predict the game of dice to his advantage, and at other times merely to keep track of Conn's whereabouts.
Conn needs the oversight - He is a hot-blooded warrior, conflict roils in his wake. He is single minded and fancies power and women, preferably both.
The story unfolds in Roman Empire Europe, in a small town to which the Varanger lord, Thorfinn retires with his crew. He keeps Conn and Raef as his security in the town. Thorfinn is a reasonable man, he teaches Conn how to play chess, and how that mindset transfers to life. The town leader, Dobrynya, is a canny and crafty old man, uncle to the ruler of the Rus', Volodymyr. The Sclava and Varanger are two different tribes, the Rus' is the movement to unite the seafaying Varangers with the land master Sclava to create a nation. Dobrynya has a town enforcer, Pavo, who keeps the peace with a greased palm and a sadistic whip.
Conn and Pavo are soon made rivals, neither one wanting to relent that the other is the better fighter. Pavo cheats in hand-to-hand, having the aforementioned whip, as well as a kind of brass knuckles hidden in the back of his belt and the infamous knife in his boot. Conn and Raef winter in the town, but as conflicts and scuffles continue between Conn and Pavo, Dobrynya proposes to hire the cousins for a raiding party to the south.
Raef and Conn travel by boat while the Sclava keep pace by land. Even the pace becomes a competition between the two tribes - Who will reach the designated campsite first? Conn and Raef's crew is composed of wanderers, vikings, and icelanders, these thirteen qualify as Varangers to the scoffing Sclava war band. But as the journey continues, these men become a tight-knit group of blood brothers, united under the banner of Conn's determination and Raef's navigation.
They finally reach Kiev, the hometown of the Dobrynya's nephew, Volodymyr, head of the Sclava and Varanger by the bloodlines of the leaders' union. Volodymyr is confident and idealistic in his dream of one nation. He seeks out other gods to fulfill this vision into a reality, making his personal Faithful Guard uneasy - they love their master, but they are servants of Thor and the Norse deities, other religions are strange and untrustworthy.
The Dobrynya plays his hand - as Conn and Raef are under his command, he joins his nephew in a campaign to take the Greek trading stronghold of Chersonese. During the planning, Raef and a Muslim dignitary discuss the roles of God and man. Raef is a simple humanist, believing that man can and should reach his full potential without the medium of a deity. He frustrates the Arab, who sees Allah as the only way, graceful and merciful in allowing infidels to convert to him by their own free will. Raef challenges the Arab that if the Muslims believe in not enslaving other Muslims, and that Baghdad is built on the backs of slaves, then his stated wish that all become Muslim is incompatible with the ugly reality of the world.
The Arab leaves to return to Baghdad, his baggage full of notes taken upon the Sclava and their ways, in order to understand them and convert more effectively when Allah's will descends upon the North. However, he took with him the knowledge that Volodymyr plans to lay siege to Chersonese, a stop upon his journey home. Raef and Conn see danger in this, Dobrynya has faith that the dignitary was a friend.
The climax of the book is the campaign against Chersonese and the fallout from the decisions that are made by those who place power upon the wills of others. How dear a word is kept by those who pledge loyalty, and how little value is given to the owner of the promise. Life does not promise ribbons and bows as the last words are spoken, and neither does this book follow the unspoken dictates of literature.
Will this continue
As a sustainable thread
How to tie it up?
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