A Vow of Smoke and Thorns

When a summons sealed in black wax arrives at the cloister where Thessa Vorne has hidden for years, she knows her penance of silence and stonework is over. Arenhold is dying. Thorned vines creep through its halls, smoke rolls from wells that should run clear, and the Idaren line , Lord Castian, his children Rhyse, Maren, and Vaela , is being consumed by a curse no one can name. Only The Wren, a child no one claims, seems untouched by the rot. Thessa returns to a realm that remembers what she tried to forget. Dame Ysolde, the knight who once trained her, watches her with guarded hope. Brother Talley warns her of what the summons truly costs. Lord Davos of the Reach circles the dying kingdom like a patient crow. And in the deep places, a Voice in the Well whispers of an ancient vow, while the Witch of the Hollow guards the only way to the Hollow King , the figure whose hunger feeds the rot. To save Arenhold, Thessa must uncover the oath that bound her bloodline to this curse generations ago. But every answer leads deeper into smoke and thorn, and the choice she faces may doom the last of the Idaren , or save them at the price of her own soul.