A knightly fairy tale of royalty and dragons, of midwives with secrets and dashing strangers in dark inns.Taking the original French legend as his starting point, The Story of Silence is a rich, multilayered new story for today’s world – sure to delight fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale. “Utterly enchanting”Publishers Weekly There was once, long ago, a foolish king who decreed that women should not, and would not, inherit.Thus when a girl-child was born to Lord Cador – Merlin-enchanted fighter of dragons and Earl of Cornwall – he secreted her away: to be raised a boy so that the family land and honour would remain intact. That child’s name was Silence. Silence must find their own place in a medieval world that is determined to place the many restrictions of gender and class upon them.With dreams of knighthood and a lonely heart to answer, Silence sets out to define themselves. Soon their silence will be ended.