Description
Reading and writing have been banned for centuries. The human empire is robbing animals of speech using a poison called “pacification,” and is marching to the furthest corners of the land to enslave animals large and small for use on their farms. The only thing standing against them is the Order, a society of free animals determined to defend their way of life.
The rabbit Theo hides a secret: he knows the forbidden language, the symbols used to “catch words”. When his village exiles him, he joins Brune, an axe-wielding bear and loyal member of the Order, in the epic fight against the empire.
But the Order’s cause proves dangerous. Whom can Theo trust, when the empire punishes those who read or write with death? Worse, his fellow animals view the written word as sacrilegious. As the war for Mankahar’s fate looms, can Theo risk everything to learn the full power of the forbidden language? Or will he and his kind be silenced forever?