Distant 9th century. In Ladoga—the first capital of Northern Rus—two princes, Vadim of his own and Rurik, summoned from across the sea, cannot coexist. Vadim is forced to leave, and in the upper reaches of the Volkhov a new settlement begins to grow—what will become Novgorod. Powerful forces stoke the feud between the princes, and it is moving toward open war. Will the two proud leaders manage to make peace? And if they do, at what cost will their reconciliation be bought?
By the will of fate, young heroes end up right in the thick of these intrigues. And the main one among them is the lonely Wend Ingar, a fearless and merciless warrior whose earthly destiny is to find and—at any cost, even his own life—return the sacred relic of his exterminated tribe: the blue-eyed sword of Perun, the sword of the dead.