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.