The Hollow Crown of Aeltharin

Revka Marron has always known she is different. Since the summer her grandmother Yeva let her convert a root cellar into a forge, the iron has answered her call, shaping itself beneath her hands in ways no apprentice smith should possess. She calls it talent. The village calls it strange. The visions that begin seeping into her waking mind call it something far older: inheritance. A crumbling kingdom. A hollow throne. A debt of blood repaid across generations. When the spectral Hollow Choir rises from the marshes to hunt her, and the zealot Reverend Slem declares her an abomination to be burned, Revka flees the only home she has ever known. She is joined by Tarek Marron, her brother and last remaining kin, and guided by the enigmatic Iolanthe Greymoor toward the ruined heart of Aeltharin, where something ancient stirs beneath the stones. Lord Bramwell Thorne guards what remains of the old order. Madame Suli Vance trades secrets in the shadow markets. And Ovi Blackwood, the Wake-Walker, remembers a sister lost to the Sleeper's dreams. At the center waits a crown that rejects all who would wear it, demanding a wielder strong enough to hold back the dark, or foolish enough to unleash it. Revka's blood chose her for this moment. What she does with it will determine whether Aeltharin wakes, or sleeps forever.