The long-awaited second instalment in Samantha Shannon's Sunday Times and New York Times-bestselling series. Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms - but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory's purpose. To the north, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving her queendom from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow - exactly where she wants to be.

Meanwhile, the dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai lives in a Seiikinese mountain temple, where celebrants strive to wake the gods from the Long Slumber - but someone from her mother's past is coming to the mountain for her. When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must rise to protect humankind from a devastating threat.