The bird and the sword

On the day her mother is killed, a girl is cursed to silence. Her mother tells her father that she will never speak again, and that if she dies, he will die with her. She also predicts that the king will sell his soul and lose his son to the sky.

The girl grows up under the eye of a father who has a claim to the throne. He waits in the shadows for each of the prophecy's words to come true, because he wants the crown badly. She wants only to be free, but she cannot speak or make a sound, and she holds neither a sword nor the kind of charm that could sway a king.

The setting is a land where enchantment has been purged. Magic is forbidden, and the only power left to her may be love, which raises the question of who would give it to someone mute and caged.

This is a fantasy with a romantic thread, built around a prophecy, a curse and a prisoner who has to find her own way out. A short verse of warning opens the book and sets a hushed, ominous tone, and the stakes are survival and escape.