Dies the Fire
S. M. Stirling
 Mike Havel is a former United States Marine and veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War who works as a bush pilot. On March 17, 1998, Havel is flying over the Bitterroot Mountain Range in Idaho when a mysterious event known as "The Change" occurs. His passengers are wealthy industrialist Kenneth Larsson, Larsson's wife Mary, and their three teenage children, twins Eric and Signe, and Astrid. When the plane's engine and electronics are disabled and rendered inoperable, Mike makes an emergency crash landing. Everyone survives, though Mary is seriously injured. The party makes its way through rough terrain to a ranger cabin in the woods. Mike and Eric hike out to the highway, and encounter a trio of racist survivalists on horseback who have taken prisoner a black man named Will Hutton and his family. Mike and Eric rescue the family, but the survivalists escape. Mike and Eric pursue them to the cabin where the rest of the Larssons are waiting. By the time Mike and Eric catch up, they have murdered Mary, and are attempting to rape Signe and Astrid. All three survivalists are killed. The Huttons, who breed and train horses, join Mike's band. The group elects Mike as their leader and decide to head for Larsdalen, the Larsson family estate in the western Willamette Valley in Oregon. Along the way, Astrid shoots a black bear with her bow, which only provokes it into attacking. It seriously wounds Mike before they manage to kill it. The event gives the group its name: the Bearkillers. On the journey, the Bearkillers begin recruiting other survivors. The Bearkillers are hired by a group near a Nez Perce Indian Reservation to find and wipe out a nest of cannibals; in accomplishing their mission, they rescue a number of captives. Mike and Signe become attracted to each other, though she keeps him at arm's length, still horrified by the memory of her near-rape. Later, when the group has grown larger, Mike takes two companions to scout the way ahead. In Portland, Mike meets Norman Arminger, leader of the Portland Protective Association. Arminger, a former professor of medieval history and member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), is reinstating feudalism by recruiting gang members and former SCA members, and driving those he does not want or need out of the city. Arminger offers the Bearkillers positions as Protectorate nobles, but Mike declines. On the way back, Mike and his men save Juniper Mackenzie and her friends, who are on their own reconnaissance mission. Mike and Juniper are attracted to each other and have sex before the two groups go their separate ways. The encounter leaves Juniper pregnant. The Bearkillers hire themselves out to a local sheriff to fight "Duke Iron Rod", who is raiding the Camas Prairie region. The Bearkillers trap and wipe out a raiding party, but while they are away, a traitor helps a second group enter and attack the Bearkillers' camp. In the fighting, Ken Larsson loses his left hand and eye, but Mike and his men return in time to rout the attackers and capture Iron Rod for later hanging. The Bearkillers also take part in a raid on a Protectorate castle, which Arminger had constructed to control an important route (I20) over the Cascades. After the Bearkillers reach Larsdalen, Mike and Signe become engaged. The parallel story of the formation of Clan Mackenzie begins with Juniper Mackenzie, a folksinger and Wiccan priestess. Juniper is performing in a restaurant in Corvallis when The Change occurs. She, along with her deaf teenage daughter Eilir, and their friend Dennis Martin, try to aid victims of an airliner crash in the city. When a bunch of looters realize that guns no longer work, they attack a policeman. Dennis and Juniper go to help him. Juniper kills one of the attackers and his companions flee, but one of them, Eddie Liu vows to avenge his dead friend. Liu later becomes one of Arminger's barons. Juniper, Dennis and Eilir gather supplies, collect Juniper's horses and wagon from a friend's farm, and head for Juniper's cabin in central Oregon. On the way, refugees attack them for their food. Eilir is forced to shoot a woman with her bow; the woman's companions flee, but Juniper and Dennis take pity on the wounded woman and her young son, allowing them to join the group. Some of Juniper's coven members also make their way separately to Juniper's cabin, after rescuing a dozen school children abandoned on a school bus. The nascent Clan starts to farm the land. To supplement their food reserves, Juniper and Dennis go hunting. They stumble upon and rescue Sam Aylward, a former member of the elite British Special Air Service and a superb archer and bowyer as well. He had been injured after falling into a steep ravine and had become trapped. Later, Juniper takes a few companions to scout the surrounding area. They arrive in Corvallis, Oregon, where they discover that the faculty of Oregon State University has taken over the governing of the town. On their way home, they are ambushed by a group of cannibals, but are saved by Mike and his Bearkillers. A night or two later, she and Mike have sex, conceiving a child. The Clan has a successful first harvest, but problems elsewhere dampen this happy occasion. The nearby town of Sutterdown is attacked and occupied by Protectorate troops. Juniper agrees to lead the Clan against the occupiers and drives them out of the town. Later in the year Sam Aylward is sent to lead a group of Mackenzie archers to aid the Bearkillers' raid against a Protectorate castle. They are successful and even manage to force the surrender of a second castle. Juniper gives birth to a son, whom she names Rudi in memory of her dead husband. During Rudi's wiccaning, Juniper is overcome by inspiration which causes her to give him the craft name of Artos and to pronounce a prophecy declaring him "the Sword of the Lady."