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A fantasy epic of the strength and limitations of love and loyalty: between friends, lovers, kin, strangers? and enemies. Nine years after the near obliteration of her clan in an ill conceived raid, Brede, a plains? nomad, is living unwillingly in the marshes. The sudden ending of a decades long drought, brings with it many changes; rumour has it that the rain was bought at the price of a King's head, and the sword needed for such a sacrifice is missing.Change comes for Brede in the arrival of Tegan, a wounded mercenary.Brede's discovery, first of the Dowry Blade and a stolen horse, and then of Tegan's history, sets in train a journey to the capital in search of a missing sister and lead to an unexpected role in the Queen's household, and a powerful lover.