Skandian outcasts Hal, Stig, and others do battle at sea against the Wolves and the Sharks, in the ultimate race across icy waters where not everyone thinks of the competition as play.

"Hal and the other Herons face many perils as they track down the pirates who stole Skandia's most prized artifact, the Andomal"--

With their honor restored, Hal and his fellow Herons leave Skandia again on a new mission--to track down and stop Hal's nemesis, Tursgud, a bullying youth-turned vicious pirate and slave trader.

In Hallasholm, Stig is contesting the annual Maktig competition to decide Skandia's greatest warrior. But a late-night knock on the door brings someone Stig never expected to see again, along with a request the Herons are hard-pressed to refuse: a rescue mission of epic proportions. Across the ocean, the southern city-state of Byzantos is plagued by a crew of pirates who've kidnapped the son of Empress Justina. Slipping out of Hallasholm under the...

The Herons are home in Skandia--preparing to celebrate two of their own and working on sea trials in the newly constructed Heron. But during a short excursion, they encounter an Iberian pirate ship raiding the coast of Sonderland, so Hal and his crew take action. Though the Herons quickly triumph, the Iberians voice their fury at the Herons, vowing to take revenge. And soon they do--raiding the harbor and stealing or destroying as many ships as they...