The Wolf Beneath the World

The Wolf Beneath the World For eleven weeks, the sun has failed to rise over Saltvík. The sea has frozen, the wind has died, and the dead have begun walking north—not as the hungry draugr of old legends, but as something stranger, something that does not return home. Behind them come the Grey Ones: unnatural wolf-like shapes that move through ice and wood, drain warmth from everything they touch, and cannot be stopped by iron. When the village learns that the ancient Root of the world has called the witch Eir north, she is ordered to journey toward the Hollow Mountain, where the answer to the world's growing darkness may lie. Vigdís, a nineteen-year-old warrior carrying the legacy of a disgraced bloodline, is commanded to escort her. Ása, the jarl's daughter, joins them as an observer, while Halla and her ship, the Grey Seal, become their only means of reaching the frozen northern coast. But the journey quickly becomes more than an expedition. Eir carries scars that are tied to powers she barely understands, while Vigdís must confront the buried history of her family and the truth behind the law that sent them north. As the sea closes behind them and the Grey Ones gather in the darkness, distrust slowly gives way to loyalty—and dangerous emotional bonds begin to form among those who may be the last people standing between their world and whatever waits beneath it. Their destination is the Root. What they find there may determine whether the sun ever rises again—or whether the world itself has already begun to die.