Kingdom of Claw

The second installment in The Ashen Series picks up shortly after the events of The Road of Bones. In the kingdom of Íseldur, a Norse-inspired island nation ruled by the Urkan conqueror King Ivar Ironheart, two sisters separated in childhood fight to survive on opposite sides of the kingdom. Silla Nordvig, who has recently learned she is actually Eisa Volsik, a princess thought dead for seventeen years, flees north with Reynir "Axe Eyes" Galtung, a mercenary leader secretly working for the Uppreisna, a rebel network opposing Ivar. Meanwhile, her elder sister Saga Volsik remains a captive ward in Askaborg Castle, betrothed to Ivar's young son and scheming against Queen Signe from within.

A prologue set seventeen years earlier reveals the origins of Ivar's hatred for the Galdra, Íseldur's magic-wielding people. After conquering the kingdom, Ivar forces a Galdra Weaver, a seer who reads threads of past, present, and future, to reveal his fate. Her tapestry depicts his death, and she reveals he will fall by galdur, or magic. Ivar responds by ordering the Galdra rounded up and executed.

In the present, Silla and Rey ride through a volcanic canyon toward the northern town of Kalasgarde. Silla is haunted by guilt over the deaths of her adoptive father and others, and she craves the addictive skjöld leaves that once suppressed her magic. Rey confronts her with the truth: He knows she is Eisa Volsik because he was present as a child when she received her distinctive crescent-shaped scar. Silla panics and begs to flee Íseldur, but Rey insists she go to Kalasgarde, arguing that her existence could bring hope to those who fought for her family.

In Askaborg Castle, Saga endures a blood-Letting ceremony at Ursir's House, where multiple cups of her blood are drained. Her secret Galdra ability, called a Sense, allows her to read thoughts. When her mental shields slip during the ceremony, she overhears Queen Signe's plans to dispatch a warband called the Wolf Feeders after Eisa. Saga races to intercept the queen's letter but cannot cross the castle courtyard: She has not stepped outdoors in five years, paralyzed by agoraphobia rooted in past trauma. A Zagadkian diplomat named Kassandr Rurik finds her collapsed near the tower and calms her panic attack.

As Silla and Rey approach the town of Istré, they discover birchbark etchings identifying Rey as the Slátrari, a notorious killer, and Silla as his companion. The Wolf Feeders ambush them. Silla blinds archers with her untrained Galdra light while Rey deploys his smoke magic, and they escape by burning a bridge.

Saga devises a plan to tamper with Signe's correspondence. She incapacitates Lady Geira, the queen's scribe, and steals the queen's wax sealer stamp from the desk of Alfson, the castle maester. With Rurik's help, she intercepts a letter from the falconry tower, trading him a partial map of Askaborg's secret tunnels. Saga forges the letter's contents, misdirecting the Wolf Feeders.

In Kalasgarde, Silla and Rey settle into a shield-home concealed by magical wards maintained by Runný, one of two Galdra siblings who shelter them. Rey's grandmother Harpa, a retired Galdra instructor, reluctantly agrees to train Silla. During the Cohesion Rite, a ceremony linking heart and mind to control magic, Silla experiences a vision of her ancestor King Hrolf summoning Myrkur, the god of chaos, and bargaining a life for his dead wife's return. Silla then clasps a white orb, the heart of her magic, completing her Cohesion.

Saga establishes an alliance with Ana, an Uppreisna spy in the falconry tower whose own sister was executed as a child in Eisa's place so the real princess could escape. Together they intercept the queen's letters and search for the identity of Signe's liaison with the Klaernar, Ivar's secret police. This contact is known only as the Black Cloak.

Silla's training stalls as she cannot quiet her mind. Meanwhile, Rey and Vig, Runný's brother, investigate a giant serpent attacking livestock and citizens near Kalasgarde. Silla witnesses a woman die from the serpent and steals skjöld leaves from Harpa's shelves. Alone with the jar, she confronts her grief rather than numbing it and resists the leaves. Rey finds her and burns them. Shortly after, Silla achieves her first expression of galdur: tiny motes of light drifting from her forearms. When Ketill, a local Galdra who recognized Silla at Harpa's home, attacks her in the shield-home with accomplices seeking the bounty, she blasts his face with white light and Rey dispatches the rest.

Guided by ice spirits up Jökull mountain, Silla discovers the serpent's lair and collapses the cave entrance using her frostfire sword, a blade of cold white light. Serpent venom induces a vision of her mother, Queen Svalla, bargaining with Myrkur to protect her daughters during the Urkan invasion. Harpa identifies the serpent as Myrkur's spawn and warns that Rökkur, the prophesied twilight of the world, is approaching. While clearing her mind, Silla hears Saga's thoughts and initiates their first mind-to-mind conversation. This connection galvanizes Silla to accept her identity as Eisa and rally Kalasgarde's Galdra to destroy the serpent nest. During the assault on Jökull, the mother serpent drags Silla beneath a frozen lake; Rey and the others melt through the ice and revive her, but most hatchlings escape. In the aftermath, Silla and Rey's relationship deepens into a romantic bond.

In Askaborg, Saga discovers that Magnus Hansson, the king's chief hirdman, or royal retainer, is the Black Cloak. She also uncovers a horrific operation beneath the castle: Galdra prisoners are harvested through a parasitic process called Míkrób, in which organisms feed on a host's magic and the host's flesh is consumed by a secondary host who absorbs those abilities. Signe has Ana executed by stoning as punishment for Saga's meddling. At the feast for Princess Yrsa, Ivar's daughter, Saga discovers the Urkans drink from her father's skull and flees outdoors for the first time in five years. Yrsa witnesses Saga kissing Rurik in the gardens. After Yrsa reports the kiss, Ivar breaks Saga's betrothal to his son and reassigns her to Magnus. Saga contemplates ending her life, but Eisa's voice reaches her through their bond, anchoring her to the promise that the sisters will reunite.

Jonas Svik, Silla's former lover, is consumed by grief over his crewmate Ilías's death. He betrays Rey's location to the Klaernar and trains an elite unit called the queen's Chosen, Klaernar warriors who have acquired stolen Galdra abilities through the Míkrób process. Jonas ambushes Silla's group in Svangormr Pass, having lured serpent hatchlings there as a first wave. His invisible Chosen attack with quills tipped in hindrium, a metal that neutralizes galdur. An avalanche buries Silla and Jonas. Trapped beneath the snow, Silla hears Myrkur's voice offering to save her in exchange for access to the heart of her magic. She surrenders to keep her promise to Saga. Myrkur possesses her body, and she erupts from the snow wielding a sword of black flame. Runný stabs the possessed Silla with a hindrium quill, and Rey chokes her unconscious.

Meanwhile, Signe drugs Saga's wine at her engagement feast, triggering Saga's uncontrolled Cohesion. Eisa's voice guides Saga through the ritual, and Saga frees her galdur's heart, symbolized by caged winterwing birds. Myrkur then offers to make her captors pay. Saga relinquishes control, and black flames devastate the great hall, killing Princess Yrsa. Rurik, who secretly returned to Askaborg, carries Saga from the wreckage.

Silla wakes in Ashfall Fortress in Kopa, her galdur suppressed by hindrium to contain Myrkur. Rey tells her Saga is missing, Yrsa is dead, and Ivar survived. Saga wakes on Rurik's ship, discovers they have passed Midfjord, the destination she and Rurik agreed upon, and are bound for Zagadka. Rurik reveals that all Zagadkians possess shapeshifting magic and that he is the Beast of Zagadka, the high prince's feared heir. When he transforms, Saga is terrified and furious at losing her freedom again.

The novel ends with both sisters separated and facing uncertain futures. Silla carries Myrkur's bargain in her body while waiting in Kopa for news of Saga, who is locked in a cabin aboard Rurik's ship. Rey threads his fingers through Silla's, and together they affirm they will face what comes.