When Lo-Melkiin – a formidable king – arrives in the desert with his army, he is determined to take one of the village girls to be his next wife. But one girl, desperate to save her beautiful sister from certain death at his hands, makes the ultimate sacrifice – pushing herself forward instead, and leaving home and family behind to go to her fate with this fearsome man. But a strange magic seems to flow between this girl and Lo-Melkhiin, and night after night she manages to survive. Finding power in storytelling, the words she speaks are given strange life of their own. Little things at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. But as she dreams bigger she raises more terrible magic, with power enough to save a king… if she can only stop her heart from falling for a monster first…