A young adult low-fantasy novel by Shannon Hale, based on the lesser-known Grimm's Fairy Tale "Maid Maleen".
Dashti is a recently orphaned "mucker" girl from the steppes, who accepts a job as lady's maid to highborn Lady Saren. Saren is in the midst of refusing an Arranged Marriage and gets herself (and Dashti) locked in a tower for her defiance.
They're supposed to stay imprisoned for seven years, but although the first year passes as expected—with visits from both Saren's vicious would-be husband and the young, kindhearted lord she claims to truly love—their food stores begin to run out, and any trace of life outside vanishes.
It is up to Dashti to rally their limited resources and save them both—but getting out of the tower is only the first step into a world that is frighteningly changed from what they knew before.
This novel contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Saren's father slaps her, tries to force her into an Arranged Marriage with a monster, locks her in a tower when she refuses, and then basically invites her would-be fiance to carry her off by force.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the original fairy tale, it was the princess who realized that nobody was coming to get them out and it was up to her to save herself and her servant. And she did not squander their food stores, either.
- Altar Diplomacy: Tegus is betrothed to the ruling lady of the neighboring realm to solidify an alliance against the conquering Lord Khasar.
- Amicable Exes: Tegus and Saren, technically speaking.
- Angry Chef: The cook who employs Dashti and Saren as pot-scrubbers in Song For Evella.
- Armor-Piercing Question: At Dashti's trial, one of the Chiefs describes a commoner impersonating gentry as "the greatest sin one can commit". The Chief of War then asks if it's a greater sin than razing kingdoms, an obvious allusion to Lord Khasar and a reminder that she saved them all from much worse. The Chief in question can't come up with a good response.
- Ascended Extra: In the original fairy tale, the man Maleen snubbed for her lover is completely off-page. Here, he's the Big Bad of the novel.
- Ate It All: Saren, in the midst of her depression, eats almost all of the food stores in the tower, including all the fruit and sugar—causing the girls to run out of food and necessitating a jailbreak.
- Blue Blood: Exaggerated in the Eight Realms, where the gentry are considered Semi-Divine and commoners mud people who were made by the gods simply to serve them. As such, Dashti is an Extreme Doormat for Saren, to both their detriment, and it takes her experiences with Lord Khasar to realize that the nobility are people like any other. When her Secret Diary is discovered, the Chiefs condemn her for heresy for even thinking badly of a noble and are ready to kill her for impersonating one, even though she did so under the orders of that same noble.
- Breach of Promise of Marriage: A variation: in the Eight Realms, any woman who is officially betrothed has the right to demand justice from anyone who endangers her engagement. Usually this involves demanding reparation from, or even the life of, the other woman.
- Broken Bird: Saren is barely able to get up and move without Dashti at the beginning of the novel, which worsens due to long isolation. It takes her the entire book to get past it.
- Chekhov's Gun: Or rather, Chekhov's yak. Dashti giving the yak to the palace is used as legal basis for Khan Tegus to marry her, thanks to an old mucker tradition where a woman gives her last animal to a family to formalize an adoption.
- Damsel in Distress: Saren, who would have 100% died several times over if not for Dashti (a contrast to Hale's typical Plucky Girl heroines and the original fairy tale's princess).
- Deal with the Devil: Lord Khasar traded his soul to the desert shamans in exchange for the ability to transform into a giant wolf at night.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Impersonating royalty is a serious crime, which Dashti knows. It's why she doesn't want to pose as Lady Saren. She nearly gets executed when her ruse is discovered, but Saren saves her by officially adopting her and making her royalty.
- The Determinator: Dashti, who is able to keep both herself and Saren going. Her persistence and loyalty are grudgingly praised even by people who don't actually like her.
- Driven to Suicide / I Cannot Self-Terminate: When they've been at Khan Tegus' in disguise for several months, Saren reaches a low point and stops eating. When Dashti confronts her, she says she doesn't want to live anymore and asks Dashti to kill her. Naturally, Dashti vehemently refuses.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: When Dashti and Saren escape the tower, they find that Titor's Garden has been completely razed; they don't meet another living human until they cross into Song For Evella.
- Extreme Doormat: Dashti, due to the intense classism preached by the Eight Realms. No matter how unreasonable or downright dangerous Saren's demands become, Dashti never asks her to stop or pushes back, and is worried that she'll be struck by a Bolt of Divine Retribution for even thinking badly of her. It takes her the whole book to grow out of this. This also extends to other nobles: Lord Khasar takes sadistic pleasure in ordering her to let him hurt her, and she goes along with it until Saren orders her otherwise.
- Fallen Princess: Lady Saren, though the actual title of "princess" doesn't exist in their world.
- The Famine: What caused Dashti's brothers to abandon the family in her backstory. Also brought up as a concern when Lord Khasar's troops are advancing on Song For Evella, which is already packed with refugees.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Eight Realms are based on medieval Mongolia.
- Foil: Both Lord Khasar and Khan Tegus clamor for Saren's hand, and Dashti often highlights the despicability of Khasar's various cruel traits by noting that she can't imagine Tegus ever doing the same.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: When Saren throws a tantrum in Dashti's absence, the other scullery maids just lock her up and leave her to scream it out rather than showing sympathy. Dashti is horrified and says that Saren has lost her family, to which the other maids reply that they've lost their families too, and they never acted entitled about it.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Defied; though Dashti sometimes thinks about how she would like to slap some sense into Saren, she never does.
- Girl in the Tower: Two girls, since Dashti refuses to abandon her mistress when Saren's father locks her away for defying the Arranged Marriage he set up for her.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: After the guards stop visiting, Dashti and Saren slowly start to lose their minds, hallucinating in the tower's darkness and becoming more and more detached from reality. Even after they escape, Saren remains paranoid and sometimes hears and sees things that aren't there.
- Grew a Spine: Saren finally speaks up when Dashti's life is in danger. And she acknowledges how much of a burden she is on Dashti.
- Healing Hands: Dashti, though it's really the songs that do the trick—her touch just helps guide the songs in the right direction.
- Hearing Voices: The "mentally ill" variety. After nearly three years in a tower, Saren developed psychosis, having visions of Khan Tegus killing her with arrows and knives and of voices telling her to trust no one. She has difficulty telling between her hallucinations and real life.
- I Am Not Pretty: Dashti often insists that she is unattractive, either because of her dark complexion and sturdy build or the birthmarks on her cheek and hand, but none of the other characters' behavior ever gives the reader reason to believe she's ugly or even terribly plain. It is mentioned that her birthmarks are considered bad luck in mucker culture, which surprises her when non-muckers don't care.
- Just Following Orders: Saren tries to invoke this in Dashti's defense when Dashti is on trial for impersonating her mistress, but her crime is considered so extreme ("a great sin") that the defense doesn't hold up.
- The Load: Lady Saren, who may range from "pitiful but sympathetic" to "
please just smother her" at various points in the story before the final arc. - Loophole Abuse: When saying that she ordered Dashti to impersonate her doesn't work in saving Dashti's trial, Saren takes the opportunity to adopt her, saying that Dashti is her sister and the only person who stayed with her when everyone else abandoned her, including her living family. Dashti couldn't have impersonated royalty if she was royalty. This and Tegus pointing out that Dashti prevented a war did the trick.
- Love Letter: Saren and Tegus exchanged several of these between Saren's first meeting with Khasar and her betrothal (though they never actually met in person and their love is not particularly sincere).
- Love Sacrificed for Power: Animal power can be gained through a deal with the desert shamans. If a person sells their soul to them, he must remorselessly kill a close relative; the more he loved the person he kills, the greater his power will be. After that sacrifice, the desert shaman summons a predator spirit into the person, who then gains the added strength and cunning of that beast as well as the ability to change into its shape.
- Loyal Animal Companion: "My Lord" the unusually empathetic cat, who saves both Dashti and Saren's lives on multiple occasions.
- Matchmaker Crush: Dashti is absolutely set on making sure Lady Saren and "her khan" end up together, all the while in denial of the magnitude of her own feelings for Tegus.
- Meaningful Name: Khasar, from a Mongolian root meaning "terrible dog". In-universe, there's a whole naming language, and Dashti periodically speculates on the significance of various characters' names.
- Old Man Marrying a Child: Lord Khasar's exact age is never given, but he's certainly at least middle-aged, and he begins to pursue Lady Saren when she is only eleven.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Saren is by and large a Fragile Flower who can barely do anything for herself. The fact that she hates Lord Khasar enough to refuse his proposal and later throws her chamber pot in his face is a strong indicator of just how evil a man Lord Khasar is.
- Orphan's Ordeal: The whole reason Dashti was ever involved in any of this is because she was forced to travel to find work after the death of her mother, whose loss she is still grieving.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Lord Khasar traded his soul to the desert shamans in exchange for the ability to assume the form of a huge wolf at night.
- Parental Abandonment: Dashti's father died when she was a toddler; her brothers, who took their father's place as providers for the household, abandoned them during a harsh winter; then her mother died.
- Picky Eater: a subversion; Dashti treats Saren as if she is this, thinking it would be wildly inappropriate to let gentry eat "vulgar" (read: ordinary) food, when Saren actually turns out not to care that much.
- Playing Cyrano: Saren is too terrified to speak to Khan Tegus when he appears outside the tower, and commands Dashti to impersonate her. They repeat this charade again much later when living in Tegus' house, with the result that Dashti is almost executed for impersonating gentry. Predictably, Tegus has no idea Dashti is not the insipid Lady Saren of her letters and falls head over heels for her. Saren wants it to go as far as a Bride and Switch, but this is the point where Dashti finally hits her limit.
- Briefly (and touchingly) inverted when Saren accepts Tegus' marriage proposal on Dashti's behalf because Dashti is crying too hard (with joy) to speak.
- Princess for a Day: Dashti declares herself as Lady Saren and gets less than a week to wear expensive deels and be attended by a lady's maid before giving it up because she can't bear the thought of having to pull a Bride and Switch.
- King Incognito: Lady Saren works in Tegus' kitchens as "Sar", Dashti's "clan-sister", in order to hide her whereabouts from Lord Khasar.
- The Paranoiac: Lady Saren, thanks in part to tower madness and whatever happened to her beforehand. She's convinced that only Dashti can be trusted and refuses to come clean to Khan Tegus because she thinks he'll kill her.
- Ruling Couple: It's strongly implied that Khan Tegus and Dashti will be this once married.
- Sadistic Choice: Lord Khasar presents Khan Tegus with one: watch a hundred innocent hostages be murdered, or give up "Lady Saren". (Or surrender himself, which is the option Tegus is most inclined towards but also the least feasible.) Dashti saves him from having to make the choice by sneaking into Khasar's camp herself in the guise of "Lady Saren".
- Savage Wolves: It's a wolf attack that kills the guards outside the tower, though it later turns out to have been just one, Lord Khasar in his horrible wolf form.
- Scrapbook Story: the novel is Dashti's in-universe journal of her and Saren's ordeals. Goes from being a framing device to a plot point when it's picked up by the very last person Dashti wants to read it.
- Secret Relationship: Lady Saren and Khan Tegus in backstory and the story's first arc though it turns out that they've never actually met and, although they are really betrothed, exchanged love letters more out of desperation (on her part) and glamorous ideals (on his part) than actual attraction.
- Shameful Strip: Dashti deliberately humiliates herself, including stripping naked, when she confronts Lord Khasar in order to get close enough to him to sing the wolf song.
- A different version of this trope comes up when Saren recounts the story of when she saw Khasar transform into wolf form—he took off all his clothes in order to embarrass her.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Downplayed with Lady Saren. She has suffered greatly, but she is also a high-ranking noble who has been catered to all her life by servants and thus has no idea how terrible their lives really are. She forces Dashti to impersonate her because she believes that the others will understand as long as she explains it, ignoring Dashti's protests that it won't work. Sure enough, Dashti nearly gets executed for it and Saren has to adopt her to save her.
- Suddenly Suitable Suitor: The next-to-last scene is mostly taken up with Lady Saren and Khan Tegus machinating to make Dashti an acceptable bride for Tegus.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The novel takes some of the plot points of the original and gives them a more realistic twist.
- The "seven years of food and drink" locked in the tower don't even last three. Rats eat it, Saren overeats in her tower madness, and the rest spoils. It's mentioned that the king meant to supplement it with food through the door, but once the kingdom falls, that ends. The girls have to break out much earlier.
- The psychological toll of being locked in a tower for years with only Dashti gives Saren paranoid schizophrenia. Dashti fares better, but still has hallucinatory episodes and fears that she'll be destroyed by the gods for failing Saren in any way.
- Lady Saren, a pampered princess, is in no way prepared for the life of a scullery maid. She's the slowest in the kitchen and needs Dashti to do part of her work to even pass muster. When she loses Dashti for a day, she throws a tantrum and gets locked up by the other scullery maids, who aren't as solicitous of her behavior as Dashti is.
- Transformation Horror: Lord Khasar transforming into a wolf is so grotesque that Dashti nearly throws up on seeing it, and seeing it was one of the many things that broke Saren before the story began.
- Trojan Prisoner / Impersonation Gambit: Dashti surrenders herself in the guise of Lady Saren to Lord Khasar, firstly in order to prevent him from attacking Song For Evella and secondly to get close enough to force him into wolf form in front of his men.
- The Wise Prince: Khan Tegus (though he starts the story somewhat ignorant of the wider experience of his people; he grows wiser through the last half of the book as a result of his relationship with Dashti).
