VIKING

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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First published in hardcover in Great Britain by Aries, an imprint of Head of Zeus Ltd., a part of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London, in 2023

First United States edition published by Viking, 2024

Copyright © 2023 by Dan Jones

Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint lyrics from “I Am the Wolf” by Mark Lanegan, copyright © 2014. Printed with permission of the Mark Lanegan Estate.

Map design by Jamie Whyte

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023951280

ISBN: 9780593653791 (hardcover)

ISBN: 9780593511763 (ebook)

Cover design: Head of Zeus, based on a concept by Holly Ovenden

Cover images: (wolf emblem and fort) Adobe Stock

Interior design adapted for ebook by Cora Wigen

This is a work of fiction. Apart from the historical figures, any resemblance between fictional characters created by the author and actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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