From USA Today bestselling author Nghi Vo comes a beautiful new tale in the Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle, drawn from the earliest days of Chih's career as a wandering cleric.

"Nghi Vo is so good." -- NPR on The Brides of High Hill

Every story begins somewhere.

On the banks of the Ya-lé River, the town of Luntien gathers to celebrate the start of the rainy season, but the celebration is marred by the arrival of refugees from the sea. Everyone has a story about the foreigners newly in their midst -- lazy, violent, unwanted -- while the refugees themselves grieve the loss of the home they loved.

Cleric Chih, very recently still Novice Chih, is also a stranger in Luntien. A moment of carelessness and bad luck leaves them waiting tables as they struggle to establish themself as a real cleric. A cleric's job is to listen and record, but the stories emerging in Luntien are ugly and violent, as hard to predict as the river itself. With their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant by their side, Chih must help the refugees while also unraveling a mystery that may have roots in their own faraway home in the abbey of Singing Hills.

In the seventh entry of the award-winning Singing Hills series, we meet Chih and Almost Brilliant just beginning their journey together as Chih assumes their place on the road and in the world.

The novellas of the Singing Hills series are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
Into the Riverlands
Mammoths at the Gates
The Brides of High Hill
A Mouthful of Dust

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

• We started tracking this book on August 23, 2025.
• This book was £10.42 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 23 times in the past 278 days.
• The current price of this book is £13.00 last checked 3 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is £12.81.
• The lowest price to date was £10.42 last reached on August 23, 2025.
• This book has been £10.42 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £14.96 last reached on October 19, 2025.
• This book has been £14.96 one time since we started tracking it.

• Literature & FictionGenre FictionLGBTQ+Nonbinary & Genderqueer
• Science Fiction & FantasyFantasyMyths & LegendsAsian
• LGBTQ+LGBTQ+
• Literature & FictionGenre Fiction

• Publication Date: May 5, 2026
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 139 Pages
• File Size: 40 KB