In 1582, Yermak’s force marches against the Siberian khanate: the forces of Khan Kuchum are defeated, and the rich cities of Qashlyk and Chingi-Tura are taken and plundered, as the Cossacks fight their way through to the Ob. But on this road, the young ataman of a dashing hundred, Ivan Yegorov’s son Yeremeyev, separates from Yermak: from the locals he hears of a mysterious land of eternal summer in the upper reaches of the Ob. There, they say, evil sorcerers Syr-tyr rule the dragons, possessing unimaginable stores of gold, and the road to their lands is guarded by a gigantic golden idol, for which bloody sacrifices are made.
The thirst for loot and the desire to destroy pagan shrines—to tear doomed captives from the hands of the priests and take the idol away—drive Yeremeyev’s hundred to turn north. The Cossacks set off on a dangerous voyage to the distant sea, to the country of the sorcerers, which the Nenets living nearby call “Ya-Mal”—“the End of the Land,” or “the Land of Evil Sun.”
And the sun there is indeed different: over this land burns a second light, lit by ancient sorcery for purposes that no one yet understands. Historical fantasy about golden idols, dragons, and bloody rituals.