Royal swords possess the unhuman strength and temperament of their ancestors, dragons. Burta, a young royal sword, resents that she must always defer to Tristab -airta, Princess Royal of Allsongs, a poet. But Burta is so skilled in arms she expects to win the Allsongs' Contending and that will make her Tristab -airta's liege. The problem is that she is trapped between the monster that hunts her and the deadly drop down the cliff to the turbulent sea...