Torvi and Morgunn must learn to survive on their own after a devastating plague sweeps through their steading. Upon

hearing rumors of Uther—a flame-loving Fremish wolf-priest—and her band of desperate, starving girls who move

hungrily through Vorseland searching for recruits, they decide to leave their home and hunt down a mythical sword

lost in the depths of the Green Wild Forest. If found and pulled from the stone tree, the sword could catapult the first

woman to a throne in generations.

But when Uther captures Morgunn, Torvi must embark on a quest to save her sister instead, taking with her a

shaven-skulled druid and a band of roaming Elsh artists called the Butcher Bards. Along the way, Torvi faces brutal,

bone-grinding Salvation monks, barters with a handsome young wizard, attends a magical Night Market, and seeks

a prophecy from an eerie Pig Witch. The blood bond between sisters runs deep, and Torvi will save Morgunn—or

die trying.

In this stand-alone companion to the critically acclaimed fantasy The Boneless Mercies, readers will thrill at

Tucholke’s signature sumptuous writing, a complex sisterhood, and a heartbroken heroine who discovers that her

story is grander and wilder than she ever imagined.