Prince Cardan Greenbriar’s birth is accompanied by a dire prophecy. When his mother, Lady Asha, presents him to his father, the Faerie High King Eldred, royal astrologer Baphen tells them the prince will be Eldred’s last child, “the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne” (2). A great ruler will arise after Eldred, but only from the spilled blood of Cardan. Alarmed by the prophecy, Eldred shuns Cardan, leaving him to be raised by Lady Asha alone. The youngest of five siblings, Cardan grows up willful and unchecked, often bullied by his older brothers and sisters. Cardan is hungry for the approval of his distant father. One day, Prince Dain, his older brother, asks Cardan to shoot an arrow at an enchanted mortal to impress King Eldred. Cardan agrees but backs out at the last minute, unwilling to kill a mortal who has been tricked. Prince Dain kills the mortal with Cardan’s arrow and spreads a rumor about Cardan’s cruelty. Since the mortal is the lover of Van Moren, the king’s seneschal or chief advisor, Eldred punishes Cardan by locking his mother up in the Tower of Forgetting. Cardan’s care is handed over to Prince Balekin, his cruelest older brother.