From the bestselling author of The Spellshop comes the award-winning first book in an adult epic fantasy series of malevolent nature spirits, a young woman’s uncertain destiny, a deadly competition, and family found along the way—available in trade paperback for the first time. Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . . Only those spirits want to kill you. It’s the first lesson that every Renthian learns. What is a queen? In Renthia, the queen is the one human with enough magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. For the very spirits the humans rely on to live—wood, earth, water, air, fire, and ice—at the same time possess an instinctual drive to exterminate them. The queen is chosen for her ability to control the spirits, but she is also mortal, so to ensure the humans’ survival, potential heirs to the queen’s role are rigorously trained to
