Shieldmaiden
1. MIDWINTER Thespa wept behind the black rock, her sword discarded on the icy ground. There were too many. She was too late. She knelt on the fern, hands grasping her leather jerkin, shaking with unvoiced rage. Smoke and steam billowed from the thatched roof of the cottage. Riders cried to each other as they remounted, horses slipping on the packed snow. The unconscious body of a fur-draped woman hung across the saddle of an Aroth raider. It was Penoa, Thespa’s mother. The riders circled...