Truthwitch

"Truthwitch" redirects here. For witchery type, see Truthwitch (definition). For other uses, see Truthwitch (disambiguation).

## Truthwitch

### Publisher

Tor

**Truthwitch** is the first book in the New York Times bestselling Witchlands series by Susan Dennard.

## Synopsis

Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik Nihar and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

## Summary

As diplomats and royalty converge from across the Witchlands for a Truce Summit in Veñaza City, Safiya fon Hasstrel and her Threadsister Iseult det Midenzi hold up the wrong thrice-damned carriage north of town. Instead of the guy who’d stolen their savings, they find themselves facing a Bloodwitch who sniffs out Safi’s rare magic: the ability to tell truth from lie.

While trying to flee the Bloodwitch by catching the first ship out of Veñaza City, they run into the hot-tempered Prince Merik Nihar, who has just left a failed negotiation at the Truce Summit. He’d hoped to reestablish trade for his starving homeland, Nubrevna. Instead, he finds himself facing a Cleaved Tidewitch—the man’s magic having boiled over and turned him into a bloodthirsty monster—alongside two girls who insist on fighting alongside him.

The commotion from the fight draws local authorities, forcing Safi and Iseult to split. That failed carriage heist attracted all sorts of bad attention. While Safi goes with the girls’ mentor Mathew to her lush lodgings at the Silk Guildmaster’s, Iseult goes with their mentor Habim to an inn. Or…she’s supposed to. Instead, she ends up running into the Bloodwitch and having to completely leave town.

To hide, she goes to her childhood home: the Midenzi settlement. As a Threadwitch who could never fit into her tribe’s weave, she discovers her mother Gretchya and her mother’s apprentice Alma are even worse off then when she’d left six years before. Now a Purist priest named Corlant controls the tribe—and for some reason, he wants Iseult dead.

After he tries to rally the tribe against her, he shoots her with a cursed arrow. Iseult manages to flee, though, with her mother’s and Alma’s help. Before they separate, though, Gretchya gives Iseult two ruby Threadstones that she claims will allow Iseult and Safi to always find each other.

Meanwhile, in Veñaza City, Safi is forced to attend the Truce Summit ball as the noblewoman she’s supposed to be. After a night of misery and dancing, however, she learns she is betrothed to her homeland’s Emperor. Yet right as this announcement is made, the lights douse and a wild escape unfolds.

Safi’s uncle had been waiting for this moment; he has everything read so Safi can flee. All she must do is hide in a carriage until it reaches a lighthouse north of town, where a sailor will pick her up and take her to safety.

That sailor, unknown to her, is Prince Merik. Safi’s uncle made a deal with him: get my niece to safety, and my farmers will trade with you.
Also unknown to Safi: the Bloodwitch (named Aeduan) was at the ball and has been tracking her ever since she fled.

Thus, Iseult, Safi, Merik, and Aeduan all converge at a lighthouse. Safi in white with a pitchfork, Iseult in black with a cutlass. For a brief moment, as they spin together, Aeduan thinks they look like the Cahr Awen. As a Carawen monk, his first duty is to protect that mythical pair from legend that can heal magic in the Witchlands.

The girls manage to escape to Merik’s ship—though not before Iseult breaks Aeduan’s spine and leaves him to float, his magic healing him, across the waves. On Merik’s ship, the *Jana*, Iseult finally loses consciousness from her cursed arrow wound. Merik’s aunt, another Carawen monk named Evrane, tends her belowdecks.

Safi, meanwhile, butts heads with Merik. All he wants is to help his homeland; all she wants is to heal Iseult so they can go on their merry way. Merik won’t let her do that though, not before they’ve reached a town called Lejna and his contract is fulfilled.

Unfortunately for Merik, his sister—Princess Vivia—has recently taken up piracy in an attempt to feed and arm Nubrevna. Merik gets caught in her scheme right as she attacks a Marstoki ship filled with cannons. Fearing the Twenty Year Truce that has kept the Witchlands from war will be disrupted by this attack, Merik tries to stop Vivia.

However, Safi has seen a healer in the Marstoki crew she hopes can heal Iseult. She and Iseult sneak Evrane onto the Marstoki shipt…right as sea foxes arrive along with more Marstoki ships. Merik loses precious time trying to find Safi, and the *Jana* barely escapes with the crew intact.

Meanwhile, back in Veñaza City, Aeduan has offered his services as a tracker to the Emperor of Cartorra, Safi’s betrothed. The man agrees and assigns his heir, Prince Leopold, to join Aeduan as they cross the sea to pursue Safi.

To evade the ships and sea foxes, Merik’s Threadbrother Kullen must use his powerful Airwitchery to help the *Jana* escape. He almost dies from a resulting breathing attack, and Merik punishes Safi and Evrane by placing them in the irons. Eventually, the *Jana* reaches safety in a secret cove on the Nubrevnan coast.

The world of Nubrevna is a wasteland, and Safi soon realizes how desperately Merik truly needs the trading contract with her uncle. She also realizes that in her attempt to heal Iseult—something Merik would have done anyway—she almost lost that contract. Repentant, she joins Merik, Evrane, and Iseult as they head inland. Here, they discover a town called Noden’s Gift amidst new greenery and life. Thanks to the nearby Origin Well of Water, this piece of Nubrevna is finally healing.

Evrane realizes that Well can also heal Iseult, so she takes Iseult and Safi to swim in its waters. Iseult does heal, but additionally, the Well reacts to the girls’ presence by causing a small quake through the land. Evrane takes this is as a sign that the girls are in fact the mythical Cahr Awen.

To reach Lejna and fulfill the contract with Safi’s Uncle Eron, Merik, Safi, Iseult, and Evrane head west on horseback. When they pause for the night to sleep, Merik and Safi share a heated kiss—that is interrupted by a booming wind-drum, which heralds the *Jana*’s approach. Merik realizes Safi is being hunted by the Marstoki Empress (who somehow knows she is a Truthwitch) as well as a Bloodwitch monk (working for the Cartorran Emperor), so he takes flight, trusting Safi to reach Lejna on her own.

Evrane sends Safi and Iseult onward because she knows the Bloodwitch and thinks she can stop him. The girls race ahead on horseback, but outside the city, they swap clothes. Iseult will lure the Marstokis away while Safi reaches Lejna and fulfills Merik’s contract. Unfortunately, Evrane is unable to stop Aeduan and he also arrives. Even worse, as Iseult and Safi are sprinting through the city going different ways, a huge unnatural storm arrives.

The storm causes the Marstoki navy to begin cleaving—as well as Merik’s Threadbrother Kullen, which only worsens the storm. Aeduan helps Iseult escape the cleaving sailors because he believes he owes her a life-debt for not killing him at the lighthouse. Outside, however, he discovers Evrane has been mauled by the Cleaved. He rescues her near-dead body and flees Lejna to heal her in the Origin Well.

Safi, meanwhile, faces off one on one against the Empress of Marstok, a vicious Ironwitch. She is hurt, but she manages to reach the designated spot in Merik’s contract with her uncle. Then she turns herself into the Empress of Marstok, who wants to use her magic to root out corruption in the Marstoki court.

Throughout this, Merik has tried and failed to rescue Kullen from his cleaving. In the end, Merik is flung to the docks of Lejna, badly hurt, and a cleaving Kullen flees, carrying his storm with him. Iseult leaves her hiding spot to find him, broken and grief stricken. She summons the Jana to get him, and she sets off to try to find her Threadsister.

Safi, now a willing captive of Empress Vaness of Marstok, realizes she has made a huge mess of everything her uncle had planned, but she has faith Iseult will find her—and that she did the right thing by fulfilling that contract for Merik and Nubrevna.

## Plot

This section requires **expansion.** You can help by adding information to it.

## Appearances

This list is **incomplete**. You can help The Witchlands wiki by **expanding it.**

**By type**

Characters

* Iseult det Midenzi (First appearance)
* Chiseled Cheater (First appearance)
* Safiya's grandmother (First mentioned)
* Yotiluzzi (First appearance)
* Aeduan (First appearance)
* Merik Nihar (First appearance)
* Alix (First appearance)
* Emperor Henrick fon Cartorra (First appearance)
* The Raider King (Indirectly mentioned only)
* King Serafin Nihar (First mentioned)
* Dom Phillip fon Grieg (First appearance)
* Kullen Ikray (First appearance)
* Evrane Nihar (First appearance)
* Jana Nihar
* Vivia Nihar (First appearance)
* Noden (First mentioned)
* Moon Mother (First mentioned)
* Mathew (First appearance)
* Habim (First appearance)
* Eron fon Hasstrel (First appearance)
* Hermin (First appearance)
* Prince Leopold fon Cartorra (First appearance)
* Gretchya det Midenzi (First appearance)
* Alma det Midenzi (First appearance)
* Corlant det Midenzi (First appearance)
* The Puppeteer (First mentioned)

Creatures

* Seagull (First appearance)
* Salamander (First mentioned)

Events

* Continental Truce Summit (First appearance)
* Great War (First mentioned)

Locations

* Dalmotti Empire (First appearance)
	+ Veñaza City (First appearance)
		- Southern Wharf District (First appearance)
		- The Hawthorn Canal (First mentioned)
* Marstok
	+ Azmir (First mentioned)
* Nubrevna (First appearance)
	+ Lovats (First mentioned)
* Arithuania (First mentioned)
* Jadansi Sea (Pictured only)

Organizations and titles

* Carawen Monks (First appearance)
* Silk Guild (First appearance)
* Hell-Bard Brigade (First appearance)
* Examination Board (First mentioned)
* Cahr Awen (First appearance)
* Twelve Paladins (First mentioned)
* Foxes
* Purists (First appearance)

Sentient species

* Cleaved (First appearance)

Vehicles and vessels

Weapons and technology

* Aeduan's knife (First appearance)
* Aeduan's cloak (First appearance)
* Gunpowder (First appearance)
* Iseult's scythes (First appearance)

Witchery

	+ Truthwitch (First appearance)
	+ Threadwitch (First appearance)
	+ Glamourwitch (First appearance)
* Voidwitch (First appearance)
	+ Bloodwitch (First appearance)
	+ Weaverwitch (First appearance, unnamed)
	+ Cursewitch (First appearance)
* Earthwitch (First mentioned)
	+ Soilwitch (First mentioned)
	+ Earthwitch healer (First mentioned)
* Airwitch (First appearance)
	+ Windwitch (First appearance)
* Firewitch (First mentioned)
* Waterwitch (First appearance)
	+ Tidewitch (First appearance)
	+ Poisonwitch (First mentioned)
* Threadsibling (First appearance)
* Witchmark (First appearance)
* Origin Wells (First appearance)
	+ Aether Well(First mentioned)
	+ Earth Well (First mentioned)
	+ Water Well (First appearance)
	+ Air Well (First mentioned)
	+ Fire Well (First mentioned)
	+ Void Well (First mentioned)
* Water (First mentioned)
* Aether (First mentioned)
* Earth (First mentioned)
* Wind (First mentioned)
* Fire (First mentioned)
* Void (First mentioned)

Miscellanea

* *An Illustrated Guide to the Carawen Monastery* (First appearance)
* Eridysi's Lament (First appearance)
* Salamander fiber (First appearance)

## Editions

US Original CoverUK HardbackUK Mass MarketPolish editionGerman PaperbackGerman HardcoverRomanian editionSerbian editionSpanish edition
## Trivia

* *Truthwitch* debuted at number 4 on the New York Times' bestseller list.

## References

1. ↑ Official synopsis from Goodreads
2. ↑  "Witchlands Series Recaps" on Susan Dennard's official website
3. ↑ Susan Dennard's Truthwitch Debuts at #4 on the New York Times Bestseller List on Tor.com