The Castings Trilogy is set in a pre - industrial society in a North European - style landscape. The main characters are Bramble, an Independent and endearing young woman, and Ash - a most surprising leading man.<br/><br/>Bramble, a village girl whose grandfather is a Traveller, witnesses a warlord's man wound a wolf in the woods. She tracks down the animal and puts it out of its misery. The man finds out and confronts her, and in self - defence Bramble kills him and steals his horse. Worried that the warlord will discover her crime and threaten her family, she takes to the Road.<br/><br/>Ash is a young man, also a Traveller, who has recently left the Road which he travelled with his musician parents. they have found him an apprenticeship with a safe guarder house in Turvite, the largest town in the region. Safe guarders are part security guards, part mercenaries. Ash's story begins when he kills a young woman one night - a thief who is trying to kill him. The murder throws his life into turmoil and he decides he needs to find another career - or set out on the Road once more.<br/><br/>And so the story of Bramble and Ash begins ...