Publisher's Synopsis
The River Melth is normally a gentle, exuberant daughter of her mother Water, but not this spring. Endless rain has raised the water level so high that even Neshuaas Riverborn has begun to fear the river she has sailed all her life, a river that has always obeyed her instinctive commands. When Melth in fury flings a devastating flash flood at the town of Southbridge, Nes finds herself not only separated from her ship, but swept away on a quest to discover the source of Melth's distress. For an untrained young woman who has scarcely set foot ashore in her life, travelling with an exotic company of talented strangers is less a source of wonder than of daily embarrassment as she runs up hard against all the things she doesn't know. How is she supposed to learn to hear-and tame-all the voices of fresh water with a Firedancer quietly pursuing her? Alternately humiliated, angry, frightened, over-confident, and confused by her feelings for a man not of her clan, Nes struggles to bring her talent to bear on a mystery that could overwhelm her whole world. For if elemental Water herself has chosen to join her rebellious siblings Wind and Fire in attacking Earth Mother, where in Metrenna will there be anywhere left for mortals to stand?
