About the Book
Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2002.
A nation born of angels, vast and intricate
and surrounded by danger...
A woman born to servitude, unknowingly given access to the secrets of the realm...
Born with a scarlet mote
in her left eye, Phédre nó Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child. When her bond is purchased by an enigmatic nobleman, she is
trained in history, theology, politics, foreign languages, the arts of
pleasure. And above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze.
Exquisite courtesan, talented spy... and unlikely heroine. But when
Phédre stumbles upon a plot that threatens her homeland, Terre d'Ange,
she has no choice.
Betrayed into captivity in the barbarous
northland of Skaldia and accompanied only by a disdainful young
warrior-priest, Phédre makes a harrowing escape and an even more
harrowing journey to return to her people and deliver a warning of the
impending invasion. And that proves only the first step in a quest that
will take her to the edge of despair and beyond.
Phédre nó
Delaunay is the woman who holds the keys to her realm's deadly secrets,
and whose courage will decide the very future of her world.
Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart – a massive tale about the violent death of an old age and the birth of a
new. It is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and
deeply laid conspiracies. A world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers,
deposed rulers and a besieged Queen, a warrior-priest, the Prince of
Travelers, barbarian warlords, heroic traitors, and a truly
Machiavellian villainess... all seen through the unflinching eyes of an
unforgettable heroine.
"A very sophisticated fantasy, intricately plotted and a fascinating read." – Robert Jordan
