At fourteen, Sarah is an accomplished pickpocket and knows all the backstreets and boltholes of Monn. She steers clear of Brother Parker and his Church of True Faith, knows better than to enter the Inn of The Honest Keeper, and avoids the attentions of Butch, the Miller"s son, as best she can. For Sarah, the one bright spot in her day is the storyteller"s tales of the Old People, of their magically easy lives. And as darkness falls, if one of the wealthier listeners should happen to be so intent on the storyteller"s voice as to become careless of his own purse, well so much the better. Inspired by the storyteller"s narratives, Sarah often conceives of her own life as the stuff of legend for some future troubadour. Only, such daydreams could never have prepared her for becoming embroiled with a witchy Phile, an agent of the devil come seeking the Old People"s places. How could Sarah have known picking the wrong pocket could strand her in the middle of a power-struggle between Brother Parker, the Governor, and the encroaching Phile spies?