The Husk of Kings
The king is dead before the butcher's apprentice knows he is missing. Seryn Vash learns of the assassination the way the city of Lowspire learns everything , by rumor, by fear, and by the sight of hooded men moving through the rain with blades still wet. She was there the night the throne went cold. She is one of the few who walked away. Now the Pale Watch combs the alleys for loose tongues, and the Watch's captain, Eilen Drau, has questions no witness wants to answer. As Seryn flees through crooked streets and forgotten crypts, she is shadowed by Old Marrow, a figure who has outlived kings before, and haunted by the Scarred Man, a bounty hunter whose ledger of debts extends beyond the grave. The court's physician, Calden Orvhast, arrives late to the scene with answers he should not possess. Queen Ilmara tightens her grip on a kingdom bleeding at the seams, while somewhere in the dark, Vael the Eyeless waits for debts of his own to be paid. Every ally carries a hidden blade, every ghost demands remembrance, and the truth of the husk left on the throne could unmake everything Seryn has ever known. To survive, she must choose: bury what she saw, or become the next name the grave-digger carves.