In the vein of Naomi Novik's New York Times bestsellerSpinning Silver and Katherine Arden's national bestseller The Bearand the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut-- inspired by Hungarianhistory and Jewish mythology--follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers anda one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwarta tyrant. In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only womanwithout power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. Thevillagers blame her corrupted bloodline--her father was a Yehuli man, one of themuch-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the HolyOrder of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king's blood sacrifice, Évikeis betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered. But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive enroute, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, theyhave no choice but to rely on each other. Except he's no ordinary Woodsman--he'sthe disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic toconsolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans toseize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans andthe Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understandswhat it's like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stophis brother. As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundrato the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust caneasily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father anddiscovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose sidethey're on, and what they're willing to give up for a nation that never caredfor them at all.