The Ember Vow
Smoke curls from the thatched rooftops of Briar Glen as dusk descends, and Grandmother Iselle Ashgrove , last keeper of an oath sworn to the long-vanished Ember-Sisters , breathes her final breath beneath embroidered pillows worked by her mother's hand. To her granddaughter Wren Ashgrove, she leaves a single, unexplained vow, a ring of warm metal, and the warning that something old and corrupted is stirring in the hills below the orchard. Within days, the Corrupted Ember-Wolf descends upon the lower roads, leaving Scout Tamm bloodied and the valley's peace in ruins. Waystation-keeper Dunhal Mossbridge hears a phantom voice in the dark, Captain Brindle's skiff goes missing on the river, and Ser Aldric Thorne rides south with a sealed message for Lord Mayor Selene Vyrre , while a hooded conspirator stalks the village lanes. As Emberward Pell Thornwise and his allies Talia Wrenwhisper and Caelum Vyrre race to unravel the treachery, Wren must choose: break her grandmother's vow and live, or keep it and walk into a darkness that has already swallowed Ember-Sister Yvenne. The ember is lit. The path is set. And the wolf is no longer sleeping.