The princess who rescues herself without the aid of a prince is not a new story. In the old Scottish ballad,
Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight,
the Elf Knight kidnaps Isabel and carries her off to his glade in the greenwood where he has murdered many maidens before her. But resourceful Isabel lulls him to sleep and kills him with his own sword.
The novel begins where the ballad ends, with Isabel alone in the elf glade with nothing but the Elf Knight's horse, horn, and sword. These she takes, and with their aid she conquers the dangers of the wild wood and finds her way home. But something old is waking in Isabel, something that longs for the gallop and the chase, for bright sun and the rush of wind against the cheek, for glimmering steel and bright blood and the dying of light in the eyes of the slain. Isabel is losing herself and within her the Elf Maiden grows in strength and fury.