Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what
stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them
sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as
though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real
dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and
immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band
together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every
ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re
grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the
forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood
stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its
shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the
Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible
price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him
for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is
afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take
Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things
Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And
there is no way to save her.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon
comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
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