Through the centuries since the Great Death, Kazi the Undying has been a feared legend throughout the Middle East. Now he is emperor and conqueror, an emperor as mad as Caligula 2,800 years ago. In the dark forests of Sweden and Norway, where a new ice age is beginning, the neoviking tribes have their own legend of an Yngling, a youth who once saved them from destruction and will come again in time of threat. But they do not understand where the real threat lies.