After an explosion ruins his ship, Prince Merik tries to expose his sister's treachery while fighting for the weak on the streets of the royal capital. Meanwhile, Aeduan, a Bloodwitch, and Iseult, a Threadwitch, form an unlikely alliance and travel together looking for Safiya, who has been shipwrecked with the Empress of Marstok in a land of pirates and is living every moment balanced on a knife's edge, trying to keep the pirates from unleashing war upon the Witchlands.