A mage apprentice and her master... Against three hundred mercenaries sieging a town. Seventeen-year-old mage apprentice Rielle accompanies her master, Leigh, on a mission to save a viscount from a town under mercenary control. But mercenaries aren't the only newcomers to town. When the mission goes awry, Rielle must choose whether to follow her orders or follow her conscience. "Winter Wren" is a sword-and-sorcery short story, a prequel to the romantic epic-fantasy series Blade & Rose.