For nearly a thousand years, the realms of Lorre have flourished in peace. But when the last king of Séors forsook his firstborn and bestowed the crown upon his youngest son, chaos finally took root. Civil war erupted across the realms, birthing two new kingdoms -- Neu Lorre and Peroia -- and plunging the entire Continent into decades of suffering.

Cressida was born in the shadow of war. She's trained tirelessy since childhood to take her future part in it. She watched her older brother Owen march off to die in it. And when warning of loose berserkers reached her island village, she resigned herself to outwait their extermination. But now, twelve years later, only one berserker remains.

Is he the most infamous? The most dangerous? A regular cautionary tale; a scary bedtime story?

Well, yes . He's the Mad General; the berserker who slew the last heir with any claim to either kingdom and with him the last hope of peace in their lifetime. And he's just washed ashore on Cressida's island, wounded and unconscious. Her path suddenly seems so clear; easy even. But the Continent is much bigger and wilder than her little fishing village. Will her years of study and training be enough to overcome the trials separating her from her destiny?