Dark clouds of great trouble and great war are swirling over the Far Away Kingdom. The Black Batyr leads a countless horde from the Great Steppe on a campaign against Kyiv, and the army of the White Kingdom besieges Smolensk, in the defense of which the Smolensk people are helped by the visiting Varangians and a detachment of Novgorodians. The Russians' unwitting allies include the dead army of Tsar Koshchei, who also faces a battle with the steppes. And the obvious allies included five hundred heavy cavalry riders from the Basileus of Constantinople, the army of the Berendeys, volunteer sailors from the island of Buyan and the few surviving legendary Russian heroes. But only the prophetic bird Gamayun knows how this terrible war will end.