Sword
Author: Amy Bai
Publication Date: February 10th, 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Synopsis:
For over a thousand years the kingdom of Lardan has been at peace: isolated
from the world, safe from the wars of its neighbors, slowly forgetting the wild
and deadly magic of its origins. Now the deepest truths of the past and the
darkest predictions for the future survive only in the verses of nursery
rhymes.
For over a thousand years, some of Lardan’s fractious provinces have been
biding their time.
Kyali Corwynall is the daughter of the Lord General, a child of one of the
royal Houses, and the court’s only sword-wielding girl. She has known for all of
her sixteen years what the future holds for her–politics and duty, the
management of a House, and protecting her best friend, the princess and presumed
heir to the throne. But one day an old nursery rhyme begins to come true, an
ancient magic wakes, and the future changes for everyone. In the space of a
single night her entire life unravels into violence and chaos. Now Kyali must
find a way to master the magic her people have left behind, or watch her
world–and her closest friends–fall to a war older than the kingdom itself.
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Excerpt
An arm reached out of the dark and wrapped around
her neck.
She saw it coming from the corner of her eye, but
only had time to twitch uselessly sideways. Another arm immediately followed
the first one, muffling her startled cry and stealing her breath.
Too shocked to be afraid, she bit down. The hand
over her face jerked away. Her elbow drove backwards and her heel went up into
a knee. The awful crack of bone that followed drew a pained groan from behind
her, and brought her panic in a thundering flood. Her attacker staggered,
pulling her with him. The dropped candle sputtered on the floor beside them,
throwing huge shadows everywhere. Spurred on by the thought that she might have
to finish this struggle in the dark, she shouted. It was a much softer sound
than she'd intended, but the floorboards above them creaked ominously, the arms
around her fell away, and he screamed, as though she had burned him.
Leaving this mystery for later consideration, Kyali
flung herself at the steps and scrambled up, leaving the back panel of her
skirts in his fist. Her sword clattered on the floor as she snatched at it. He
came hard on her heels and, as she turned, drove himself obligingly onto it for
her. Stunned, she froze again.
Her blood sang in her ears. By the look on his
face—a fair face, some much colder part of her noted, with the Western
short-beard—he was at least as surprised as she was. He drew a bubbling breath.
A dagger dropped from his hand and hit the floor between them.
They stared at one another.
He
made an odd face then, and coughed a gout of blood all over her. She blinked
through the drops. She knew she had to move—,
Father would say—but she couldn't. For all her years of study, all the secrecy
and swordplay, she had never killed a man. She supposed, watching his face in a
perversely distant way, that she still hadn't quite managed it. But he fell
forward onto her then, going limp, and after the instinctive terror of having
him land on her subsided the sight of his glassy gaze, of her old practice
sword sticking out of his ribs, made it clear that she had done it now.
She watched his face closely while his blood dripped
down her cheek. He didn't move. He seemed not to be bleeding anymore, though
with all the blood on him already how could one tell? She didn’t intend to get
closer to check. She couldn't hear anyone else in the house. Through the haze
of shock, she was grateful the soldiers weren't here to witness this bizarrely
personal moment.
"Well," Kyali said, beginning to be
pleased at how well she was taking this—and then threw up on him.
About the Author
Amy Bai has been, by order of neither chronology nor preference, a barista,
a numbers-cruncher, a paper-pusher, and a farmhand. She likes thunderstorms, the
enthusiasm of dogs, tall boots and long jackets, cinnamon basil, margaritas,
and being surprised by the weirdness of her fellow humans. She lives in
New England with her guitar-playing Russian husband and two very
goofy sheepdogs.
Author Links:
***GIVEAWAY***
A print copy of Sword (which comes with an extra short story and
character sketches) and a poster of the cover.
Ends Feb 28th
One ebook copy (ePub, Mobi or PDF) of Clarity.
Ends March 13th (Midnight GMT).
Prize will be sent out after March 17th.
Prize will be sent out after March 17th.
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Sword sounds like a wonderful story, I would love to read this book. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a book for me. Love fantasy! :)
ReplyDeleteLoved the excerpt, sounds like my kind of book!
ReplyDeletesounds good
ReplyDeleteI love the cover of the book. The premise and the excerpt are nice as well. It's on my TBR list now.
ReplyDeleteSounds really good!
ReplyDelete