Book excerpt: Asa is the daughter of a Viking chief whose clan is struggling to survive a never-ending winter. All the able-bodied men head to sea in search of food, leaving behind the children, the elderly, the sick—and Jorgen the skald, the wise man who will stop at nothing to take over the clan. When Asa learns the skald wants to kill and eat her beloved horse, she runs away. But then she meets a strange woman who talks to her two pet ravens, and who warns Asa she’ll have to make a great sacrifice to save her clan. Now Asa must face the biggest challenge of her life in this eerie, absorbing adventure tale.