In her latest feat of shimmering world building, the author of A Wish in the Dark and The Last Mapmaker spins a breathtaking story of wishes and destiny with both human and animal characters at its heart.

When a bird named Toi is magically transformed into a human by a Speaker—one who need only speak a wish aloud, good or bad, for it to come true—he and his feathered friend, Sura, set out on a quest to reverse the spell. Joining forces with Jet, a runaway searching for answers about his past, they venture down the winding mountain pass toward the city below. Traveling among goatherds and thespians on the eve of a fateful eclipse, they see signs of the war brewing between the mountain people and the lord of the land, who is revealed to be Jet’s father. Some prophecies are so old, they’re written on the bones of the mountain. Will Jet fulfill his duty to his father and follow his fate? And can daydreamer Toi, who’s always been a wingbeat behind the flock, return to his true form and teach himself to soar?