Chapter Ten, The Desert of Dread Summary

Around mid-morning Buliwyf has seven horses prepared and the warriors depart Hurot to seek out the glowworm. The warriors also take four hounds Ibn Fadlan considers more like wolves than dogs. Ibn Fadlan does not understand why the Northmen do not take a break between battles. Herger explains it is always this way. Even when a Northmen dies, he will continue to battle in Valhalla.

The warriors follow a trail of blood left by the horsemen from the previous night. The group stops only once to pick up a weapon left behind by the fiends. After noon the landscape changes. the riders travel through a brackish tarn that looks like a desert, except it is soggy and damp. Ibn Fadlan notes the Northmen call this area the desert of dread. In the desert...