Orphaned as a child, Taliesin was adopted by the Ravens, a clan that makes its living searching battlefields for valuables. Although she yearns to leave the scavenging lifestyle behind, she is good at it and has a knack for finding treasure amongst the fallen.
Civil war is brewing, though, and leaders both good and evil are searching for the magic weapons they need to help their forces achieve victory. The most powerful of these ancient blades is Ringerike, a sword that is said to be both a king-maker and a king-killer; it is a weapon so beautiful that people are transfixed by just the sight of it.
If Taliesin can find Ringerike, she can free herself from her life as a scavenger and save her Clan from the sinister forces out to destroy it. But not all is as it seems, and friends are not always friends; she will have to choose her allies wisely if she is to survive, much less find the sword that could be her salvation.