The World Without Mercy

Sylas was only three when men in cloaks left him at an orphanage door and walked away. The head nun who took him in became the only mother he ever knew. Now she's dying of a plague the empire refuses to acknowledge, and the knights who enforce its silence are coming to burn what she built. ​Sylas and his brother Kael have one chance: travel north to the Crimson kingdom, seek an audience with its elusive princess, and beg for help.  But to reach her court, they must first survive a world that hunts everything bearing a pulse, and a forest that violently executes the decree. Ancient yet beautifully merciless, this living woodland twists reality around intruders—even mimicking the moon and the ocean to mock their thirst, beneath a skyless canopy.  Awakened by the stain of dragon blood, the weapons Sylas carries to survive are waking up…  Sentient blades forged from something older than soil, with minds of their own and standards he doesn't yet understand.  One draws for him. One refuses.  Neither deigns to explain why.