Sigurd, a young Teawright from the tiny town of Meadow, is more comfortable with kettles and leaves than with armies and omens. Yet when he slips beneath the forest's watching boughs in search of a rare herb, he comes back with more than he bargained for-a brush with something ancient that will not quite let him go. Strange visions begin to haunt his sleep. Whispers follow him from market stall to city gate. Soon a quiet boy who only wanted to matter finds himself pursued by men outside the law, and pressed into uneasy company with weary travelers and charming fugitives. From river roads to the Capital's gleaming towers, from the mud mines to the Great Lake, Sigurd must decide what his gift is for-and who gets to claim it-before the storm that woke in the forest reaches the home he left behind.