Hana ran through the broken streets of Blood Burrow. The smell of burning followed, sliding into her mouth as she gulped for air. It was as damp as toads. She would never wash herself free of it, and never stop hearing the women scream or wipe out the memory of the Limping Man. "Mam," she cried as she ran. Mam's smiling face, her shrewd eyes and careful hands, Mam bringing food and finding shelter and teaching her, always teaching, and always loving and always there-and Mam who had swallowed frogweed and was dead. The Limping Man holds all who come near him in his psychic web, making them bow down and serve his cruel will. When Hana's mother chooses to swallow poison rather than die in the great witch-burning in People's Square, Hana flees the burrows before she too is taken. Deep in the forest she meets Ben, son of Lo, and together they set out on a dangerous quest to destroy the Limping Man before his evil consumes the world. But first they must discover the secret of his power.