Fourteen-year-old Malhela doesn’t exit the womb with a sword in hand, Olympic-caliber archery skills or a black belt in Viking kung-fu. She faces the world crawling, flayed, uneducated, abandoned, and sustained only by her wavering will to survive. When the evil Magiistos mutilate and banish Malhela, she discovers leaders are self-made, not born, and that there is a simple heroism in making it through each day as she undertakes a quest to win back her kingdom, rescue her true love, and give meaning to suffering and tragedy.