While Lazarus is kept in chains, Kelsea is permitted to travel freely among the brigands. The leader of the group is an infamous masked bandit, the Fetch, to whom Kelsea is drawn. They are rescued by a second group of brigands who fight off the first but keep Kelsea and Lazarus captive. The guard is scattered, and Kelsea and her guardsman Lazarus are separated. On the way to New London, the royal retinue is set upon by a group of brigands. On the morning of her departure, she wakes up to find her original necklace glowing. Before she leaves, her surrogate mother, Carlin, gives Kelsea a sapphire necklace just like the one she's had her whole life. As arranged by her mother, when Kelsea reaches 19 she receives a visit from the Queen's Guard, informing her that she will travel with them to her new home in the Keep, located in the Kingdom's capital of New London.

Elyssa dies at the age of 28, throwing her kingdom into turmoil. When Princess Kelsea is an infant, her mother-Queen Elyssa of the Kingdom of Tear-hides her away in the countryside to protect her until she comes of age. The first book in a trilogy, The Queen of the Tearling is followed by 2015's The Invasion of the Tearling and 2016's The Fate of the Tearling. Set on a fictional continent many years in the future, American author Erika Johansen’s fantasy novel The Queen of the Tearling (2014) tells the story of Princess Kelsea's efforts to fight injustice and restore the Kingdom of Tear to its former glory.

The queen of the tearling film