Kingfisher

Pierce has spent his whole life in Desolation Point, a bleak town on the northern coast, working in the restaurant run by his mother, the sorceress Heloise Oliver. She has kept him hidden from the wider world. Then strangers on their way to the capital, Severluna, tell him to look for them there, because King Arden's court might have a place for him.

Pierce decides to leave. Heloise, grieving and angry, finally tells him what she has withheld: his father was a knight at King Arden's court, he has an older brother, and his father loved the king's queen with ruinous results.

The road to Severluna takes Pierce through a series of strange encounters. He stops at an inn where ancient rites are observed but never discussed, and meets a famed chef whose dishes leave diners wasting away from hunger. The chef's mysterious wife wins Pierce's heart. A young woman who needs to escape even more urgently than he does crosses his path as well.

In Severluna, old magic is rising again. An artifact of an ancient god has come to light, and King Arden gathers his knights to quest after it. It might restore the kingdom's former glory or destroy it, and the king's youngest son is being urged by uncanny, lovely forces to give his father's realm away.