2023/157: Nettle and Bone — T Kingfisher

2023/157: Nettle and Bone — T Kingfisher

It was hard to be frightened of the unknown when the unknown kept chickens. [p. 66]

Marra is the youngest of three princesses. Their mother has made politically advantageous matches for the elder two: first Damia, who married Prince Vorling, and then Kania, who marries Vorling after Damia's early death. Marra -- who's been packed off to a convent, nicely out of the way of politics, where she has learnt to midwife and to embroider -- learns that Damia's death was suspicious, and that Vorling is immensely cruel to Kania ... and will be until she produces an heir. Marra realises that nobody else will save her sister, or herself: and sets out to find a dust-wife (a graveyard witch), and perform three impossible tasks, and then quite a few more tasks that seem even less feasible.

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