From the bestselling author of A Natural History of Dragons comes a thrilling fantasy of treachery, lies and sorcery featuring a foul-mouthed heroine on a quest for vengeance. 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.