'A beguiling blend of Dark Ages history, strong heroines and magic . . . Captivating'
- DAILY MAIL
Lucy Holland, the bestselling author of Sistersong, transforms the story of Herla and the Wild Hunt into a rich, feminist fantasy in this stunning tale of two great warriors, a war-torn land and an ancient magic that is slowly awakening.
Britain, 60 AD. Hoping to save her lover and her land from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the Otherworld King. She becomes Lord of the Hunt and for centuries she rides, reaping wanderers' souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield - a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes.
Queen Æthelburg of Wessex is a proven fighter, but after a battlefield defeat she finds her husband's court turning against her. Yet King Ine needs Æthel more than ever: the dead kings of Wessex are waking, and Ine must master his bloodline's ancient magic if they are to survive.
When their paths cross, Herla knows it's no coincidence. Something dark and dangerous is at work in the Wessex court. As she and Æthel grow closer, Herla must find her humanity - and a way to break the curse - before it's too late.
'Magic, myth, political intrigue and a fierce and unique love story . . . I devoured it'
- CASSANDRA CLARE, author of Sword Catcher
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Lucy Holland
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'Lucy Holland is a brilliantly assured storyteller' - Molly Flatt
A must-read for fans of Circe and The Bear and the Nightingale
Once an Iceni warchief, Herla was tricked into spending three days in the faery realm. But a century passed for each day she feasted, and when she and her followers emerged, it was to find the Iceni wiped out and Britain overrun. Cursed to bring death to all she meets, Herla now presides over her grim court, dreaming of vengeance.
710 AD. Orphaned and raised in a monastery on the edge of Dumnonia, eighteen-year-old Cryda spends what she believes to be her last days in study - until the night Ine of Wessex slays the king and lays waste to her home.
Desperate to escape, she flees west. But when Cryda loses her way on the moor, it's Herla who assists her. Herla realizes that to befriend Cryda is to risk the girl's soul, and yet she finds herself drawn to the young scholar. Together, Herla and Cryda must walk a knife's edge between the living and the dead, the faery realm and a war-torn land, in an effort to save a kingdom and ultimately their own souls.
The Wild Hunt recasts the folklore of the Erlking into a dark, feminist fantasy set amidst the legends and beauty of ancient Cornwall.