From the bestselling author of A Natural History of Dragons comes a thrilling epic fantasy of treachery, lies and witchcraft The bondmaid Hervor is used to dead men whispering in her sleep. They've been doing it for as long as she can remember; it's the living she has to watch out for. And when a new arrival at her holding triggers her into a berserker fury, she's forced to flee the contract that enslaves her and into the arms of an uncertain future. Unchained from the living, Hervor goes in search of a way to silence the dead, but it will take much more than grit and determination to make that happen. She'll need the help of a ruthless Viking, an ailing jarl, a mad witch, and more-for the treachery that killed her ghosts isn't nearly as dead as they are, and the path to peace must first traverse a river of blood.