Songbird of the Sorrows

The novel is set in the Empyrieos, a realm of four kingdoms shaped by an ancient conflict known as the God War: Arkhadia, Eretria, Reveza, and the Sorrows. Royal bloodlines carry theikós, inherited magic linked to seasonal elements. The realm's people practice goiteía, magic channeled through carved symbols.

Aella Sotiría, the narrator and secret princess of the Sorrows, has spent ten years hidden within the Aviary, her kingdom's covert order of spies (Songbirds), assassins (Nightwings), and knowledge-keepers (Owls). Her father, the king, cast her out at thirteen after she failed to manifest the Sotiría bloodline's summer theikós, handing her to Lord Amon Malis, the Eagle, who leads the Aviary. Aella's mother, Nephelle, was from Arkhadia and died sacrificing her soul magic to save Aella at birth. To conceal her identity, Aella wears a goiteía-engraved earring that disguises her Arkhadian features. Only a handful of people know who she truly is, including her closest friend and fellow trainee, Nyssa.

The novel opens as Aella completes her final test as a Fledgling, the Aviary's term for trainees, by stealing three items of significance from across the Sorrows. Before departing on her first mission, Lady Calliope, a former Revezan who trains Fledglings in seduction and performance, warns Aella through limited foresight that her coming journey holds "Nothing good" (39). During the Naming ceremony, each Fledgling drinks from a ceremonial vessel and receives a code name. One cohort member dies violently; the Eagle dismisses her death with cold indifference. Nyssa is named Sparrow, and Aella becomes Starling.

The Eagle assigns Aella her first mission: travel to Eretria with Alpha Flight, the Aviary's elite unit, and compete in the Royal Trials to win Prince Keres Selmonious's hand. While the Flight searches for a weapon reportedly in King Daedalus's possession, Aella must embed herself in the court. The Eagle enforces compliance with a threat: If she fails, Nyssa dies. Before departing, Aella visits her brother, Kallias. Their father discovers them and tells Aella to "Prove to me you're not a waste of your mother's life" (58).

Complicating matters is Raven, an Aviary assassin and Aella's former mentor who left without warning after two years as her secret lover. He is now her Flight Commander, having replaced Kestrel, who died during the previous Eretrian mission. The Flight also includes Myna, a renowned Songbird who will pose as one of Aella's handmaidens alongside Nyssa.

At the Palace of Eretria, built into the Rithean mountain range, Aella meets the royal family: King Daedalus, weary beneath his authority; Queen Atalana, pale and distant; and Prince Keres, whose beauty conceals predatory cruelty. Lady Titaia, the king's niece, serves as Aella's mentor. Five noblewomen compete alongside Aella, including the aggressive Lady Lydia, Lady Helen of Pyrene, and the enigmatic Lady Cynna from Arkhadia.

The first trial places each competitor alone with Sphinx, a creature with a woman's face, a feline body, and feathered wings, bound by a goiteía collar and forced to kill those who fail her riddle. Aella solves it on her final attempt. Lady Dehlia fails and is killed, her death met with chilling indifference by the court.

As the Flight searches for the weapon, Aella discovers mysterious goiteía marks throughout the palace that conceal hidden passages activated by royal blood. Before the second trial, someone poisons Aella's wine with nightshade. Fighting the poison, she navigates a labyrinth inside the mountain, solving puzzles and sacrificing her only light source to reach the exit before collapsing. Keres later forces Lady Helen, whom Aella suspects delivered the poison, to drink nightshade before the entire court, declaring he alone decides who lives and dies.

Titaia reveals that Keres's theikós, the decaying touch of autumn, extends to people and asks Aella to help free Sphinx. They access tunnels beneath the palace using Titaia's royal blood. Aella reaches Sphinx alone and strikes a bargain: She will remove the collar if Sphinx allows passage. Sphinx scratches a mark onto Aella's chest, calling it an anchor. Leaving the chamber, Aella overhears Keres discussing failed experiments in which subjects died because they could not serve as vessels for some power, confirming the weapon lies deeper within.

The third trial begins as a talent showcase but escalates when Keres reveals the true test: a fight to the death with daggers. Aella knocks Cynna unconscious rather than killing her; Lydia kills another competitor. At the subsequent masked ball, the Flight extracts the weapon through the tunnels while Aella dances with Keres. Sphinx's mark flares on Aella's chest and vanishes, the bargain fulfilled. Raven confirms success and gives Aella a pendant containing a lethal dose of nightshade as a last resort before departing.

Two days later, Keres discovers the theft and imprisons Aella, clamping a goiteía collar around her neck and chaining her in a hidden room. Over several days, his guard Jorah interrogates her with a blade while Keres forces her to drink a hallucinogenic poison. Keres sexually assaults her before she bites him and he withdraws. Myna and Nyssa, aided by Titaia, break Aella out. They escape via sky-carriage, a cable-suspended transport, and horseback, reuniting with the Flight at a safehouse. A blacksmith removes the collar, leaving a permanent silver scar around Aella's throat.

When soldiers attack the safehouse, Aella removes a gold ring Calliope gave her years earlier, engraved with goiteía to suppress her hidden power. A repressed memory surfaces: As a teenager, she accidentally killed her childhood friend Hali with an uncontrolled burst of wind magic. Her theikós is not the expected summer power of her bloodline but wind, a domain belonging to the Anemoi, mythical beings whose power is considered blasphemous for a mortal to wield. She uses it to defeat the soldier, then replaces the ring. Myna witnesses everything but keeps the secret.

Aboard The Nightingale heading home, Aella discovers the weapon is not an object but a man in a cage. Xan, held prisoner by Prince Keres in Eretria, has quicksilver eyes, silver-white hair, and sharp canines, bound with a collar, cuffs, and a muzzle. She removes the muzzle, recognizing parallels to her own captivity. After arriving in the Sorrows, Aella eavesdrops on Raven confirming to the Eagle that she "suspects nothing" (340). She breaks into the Eagle's study and finds documents describing theikós transference, a procedure that kills the original bearer. The Eagle intends to steal Xan's power.

Aella confronts Raven, who admits the Eagle directed him to get close to her before she even arrived at the Aviary, meaning their entire relationship was orchestrated. Devastated, she reveals her scars and sends him away. With help from Kallias, Nyssa, and Myna, Aella plans Xan's rescue. She carves goiteía for the first time, channeling her mother's soul magic, and uses her wind theikós to knock the dungeon guards unconscious. They escape through the Aviary to a privateer ship arranged through Calliope's contacts.

At the dock, Aella tells Xan her real name. He thanks her, then presses a pressure point at the base of her neck, knocking her unconscious. His last words: "You'll forgive me one day" (371). The novel ends with Aella falling limp in Xan's arms, his intentions unknown. The story continues in Daughter of the Tempest.