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.