Innamorata (The House Of Teeth Duology #1)

Prologue

It was the castle of Nicephorus the Sluggard, and before that it had been the castle of Widsith the Precious, and before that Berengar Who-Fights-Alone, and before that the island of Drepane had no king, no duke, no count, and only death lay upon the marshes and peaks and sickly-white beaches, until blood watered the earth and the great monument flowered up, stone upon cruel stone.