A tall, wind-swept rock stood out like a sentinel above a small bay in the north of Norway. At its foot stretched the village of Skaldvik: ten smoky huts, a salt storehouse, a wooden harbour and the leaning homestead of old Gunnar, where Eirik, Ivar's son, lived. Eirik was fifteen years old, with fair hair and dreams bigger than the biggest drakkar in the village. Every day after returning from fishing, he would sit on top of a rock, look out at the dark sea and dream of the faraway lands that were talked about around the campfire - England, the green islands to the west and the castles where silver was said to lie on the tables. This evening, however, something was different. The boy had sensed it from early in the morning. The seagulls were not shouting as loudly as usual, and the fish were staying further from the shore. Even Gunnar, his grandfather, was not joking during dinner. The air was heavy, as if something unspeakable hung in it. When a black cloud appeared on the horizon, Eirik trembled. But it wasn't a storm. It was a sail. Big, tarry, it glided through the mist like a spectre. The rest of the village had not yet noticed the visitor. Eirik wanted to run to the others, but something told him to stay and watch. The drakkar came silently to shore, as if floating above the water. A figure in a wolfskin cloak emerged from the deck. Her face was hidden by a hood, and her arms were adorned with the feathers of a raven - the symbol of Odin. Eirik felt his heart pounding like a hammer against an anvil. Who was the stranger? What was he looking for so far north? The man looked straight at Eirik, as if he knew he was standing there. Something strange flashed in his gaze - a challenge or an invitation. Suddenly a load began to descend from the drakkar: crates, sacks, rolls of parchment and something heavy, wrapped in a tarpaulin. At the same moment, the wind picked up and the sound of a horn came from the forest around Skaldvik. Eirik heard footsteps behind him. He turned around - and saw his best friend Astrid standing behind him, holding a bow in her hand and ready for anything. "Do you see them?" she whispered. "They are not ours. Something is going to happen tonight, Eirik." A shout rang out on the dock. Someone's hand had just emerged from a mysterious package, all in runic patterns. The village began to awaken in chaos, and Eirik and Astrid set off towards the drakkar, still unaware that this night their lives would be changed forever....