The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)
Author: Rin Chupeco
Release Date: March 20, 2018
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
ISBN: 9781492635857
Description:
In this dark, engrossing sequel to The Bone Witch, Tea has mastered resurrection—now it’s time for revenge.
Tea,
a bone witch who can resurrect the dead, is done with her self-imposed
exile. She now possesses all seven bezoars she needs to revive the
powerful daeva. With the help of these terrible monsters, she can
finally enact her revenge against the royals who wronged her and took
the life of her one true love.
Alliances
and allegiances are shifting, and danger lurks in and out of the
kingdom. But Tea’s heart is set on vengeance, even if it turns her
against her now-estranged brother, who supports her enemies. War is
brewing, and when dark magic is at play, no one is safe.
Praise for The Heart Forger:
“A dark, engaging fantasy series.”–School Library Journal
“In this spectacular follow-up to the rich The Bone Witch, Tea’s quest draws the reader further in, setting them on a more dangerous yet intriguing adventure.”— Foreword Reviews, STARRED review
“Rin’s beautifully crafted world from The Bone Witch (2017) expands in this sequel, which joins dark asha Tea on her crusade of revenge...Dark and entrancing with a third volume to come.” –Booklist, STARRED review
Links:
Buy Links:
BooksAMillion
He does not look so formidable, I lied to myself, staring at the warped, decaying body before me. I can defeat his will. I will break him. It is a wonder what Mykkie had ever seen in him.
It
was not the first time I had deceived myself in this manner. Neither
was this the first time I had raised King Vanor from the grave. But if I
repeated that mantra enough times, I thought I could finally believe my
words.
The
dead king refused to look at me, his eyes distant. The royal crypts
were built to strike both fear and awe in those who visited, but I had
grown accustomed to the stone faces looking down at me with quiet
scrutiny from their high precipices. But King Vanor’s continued silence
unnerved me every time—more than I cared to admit.
“A
wise philosopher once said,” Fox drawled from the shadows, “that doing
the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is
the mark of a fool.”
“Why do I bring you along?”
“Well, a wise philosopher once said—”
“Shut
up.” My brother had no need to tell me my quest was hopeless. Numerous
Dark asha, all more experienced than me, had made the attempt. But I had
to do something.
“You’re in a worse mood than usual. Did Kalen chew you out at practice again?”
“If you don’t like it here, why not find some women in the city to flirt with instead?”
“Not in Oda—” He caught himself. “None of your business. Can we get this over with?”
I turned back to the corpse. “Where are you keeping Mykaela’s heartsglass?”
No answer. The colossi statues guarding the catacombs were likelier to respond than this infernal sod of a king.
“Answer
me! What have you done to her heartsglass? Where did you keep it? Why
do you hate her so much?” My headache worsened. Somewhere in the back of
my head, I was aware of a shadow thrashing about, sensing my anger. I
saw a vision of water, green and murky, before it faded out of view.
I took a deep breath and let it out carefully. The ache lightened and the shadow retreated as I recovered my calm.
“This
is a waste of time.” Fox folded his arms across his chest. My brother
looked to be in peak physical health, though he was no more alive than
the royal noble standing before us.
Their
similarities ended there; there was barely enough skin and sinew
clinging to Vanor to pass for human. That was my doing. The first few
times I resurrected him, I had been respectful, taking great pains to
restore his body to how it appeared when he was alive.
Now I allowed him only enough muscle and flesh to move his jaw.
“He’s not going to talk, Tea. You know that, I know that, and he definitely knows that.”
“I will make
him talk.” Many years ago, my sister-asha had fallen in love with this
wretched excuse of a ruler. In exchange for her unwavering devotion, he
had taken her heartsglass and hidden it so well that no one had been
able to find it.
And
now, more than a decade later, Mykaela was dying. She could no longer
return to Kion. Her health had deteriorated to the point where she had
to remain near her heartsglass, still hidden somewhere within Odalia,
here in the city of Kneave. It was hard enough to be a bone witch; that
she’d survived for this long was a miracle in itself.
I
grabbed what was left of the king’s shoulders, pulling him toward me.
He reeked of death and obstinacy. “Answer me!” My voice echoed off the
columns. “Didn’t you love her even a little? Or are you so petty that
you’d allow her to suffer for the rest of her years? She’s dying. What grudge do you harbor to hate her this much?”
“Tea.”
I froze. So did Fox.
I
had told no one else about my weekly excursions to the royal crypts.
Not my friend Polaire, who would have boxed my ears if she’d known, nor
Mistress Parmina, who would doom me to a life cleaning outhouses. Only
Fox was privy to my secret, which he had agreed to keep despite his own
misgivings. And Mykaela was the last person I wanted to find out.
She
had aged more rapidly during the last few years since she had taken me
under her wing. There was more gray in her golden hair, more lines on
her face. Her back stooped slightly, like she struggled under a heavy
burden. She had taken to using a cane everywhere she went, unsure of her
own feet.
“Mykaela,” I stammered, “you’re not supposed to be here.”
“I
could say the same for you,” she answered, but her eyes were fixed on
King Vanor, her pain obvious. He watched her gravely, without shame or
guilt, and my anger rose again. How many raisings had my sister-asha
endured, forced to watch while this king refused to speak?
I
raised my finger to sketch out the rune that would send Vanor back to
the world of the dead, but Mykaela lifted a hand. “Vanor,” she said
quietly, “it’s been a while.”
The decaying figure said nothing. His eyes studied her, savage and hungry and ill suited for such an impassive face.
“I
apologize for my wayward apprentice. She has been willful and
intractable since her admission to my asha-ka and has shown little
improvement since. Please return to your rest. Tea, let him go.”
Mykaela’s
words were a steel knife through my heart. Stuttering apologies, I
completed the spell and watched as King Vanor’s body crumbled back into
dust in his open coffin. Even as his features dissolved, King Vanor
never once looked away from Mykaela’s face.
“Close
the lid and move the stone back in place,” she said. I could detect the
anger behind her calm. “I would tell King Telemaine to seal his coffin,
but even that might not stop you. Whatever possessed you to let her do
this, Fox?”
Fox shrugged, grinning like an abashed schoolboy. “I’m her familiar. It comes with the territory.”
“Being
her familiar is no excuse for being an imbecile! And you! What
possessed you to summon dead royalty in the middle of the night?”
“I
wanted to help.” The excuse sounded weaker when made to Mykaela than to
Fox. “I thought that I could control daeva now! You said no Dark asha’s
ever done that before! That’s why…why I…”
Mykaela
sighed. “And so by that logic, you think you are different from Dark
asha of the past? What you have in ability, Tea, you lack in wisdom. You
cannot compel the dead if they are not willing. Wasn’t that the first
lesson I taught you after you raised Fox from his grave? Arrogance is
not a virtue, sister.”
I
looked down, blinking back tears. Was I arrogant to want to save her?
Unlike Fox, Dark asha and all those with a silver heartsglass cannot be
raised from the dead, and that permanence frightened me. “I’m sorry. I
want to help. But I feel so powerless.”
I heard her move closer, felt her hand on my head, stroking my hair.
“It’s
not such a bad thing, to feel powerless sometimes. It teaches us that
some situations are inevitable and that we should spend what little time
we have in the company of the people that matter most. Do you
understand me, Tea?”
“Yes.” I wept.
“Tea,
I’m not dead yet.” A finger nudged at my chin. “I would appreciate it
if you stopped acting like I was. I do not give up so easily, but we
must adopt other means.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It
is only an apology if you mean it. This is the last time you will be
summoning anyone in the royal crypts, no matter how noble you think your
actions are. Promise me.”
“I promise,” I mumbled.
“The same is true for you too, Fox.”
“I promise, milady.”
“Good. Now help me up the stairs. My legs aren’t what they used to be.”
Fox
reached down and scooped Mykaela into his arms. “It’s the fastest way,”
he explained. “You’ve expended enough energy yelling at us.”
The
older asha chuckled. “Yes, that’s always been rather tiresome now that I
think about it. Perhaps you should direct your energies toward more
productive tasks so I can tire less.”
“How did you know we were here?” I asked.
“I’ve
taken to wandering at night. I looked in on Tea, but her room was
empty. I detected a shifting of runes nearby and merely followed it to
its source.”
“I
didn’t mean to make you worry.” The staircase led back to the Odalian
palace gardens. For the past two months, Fox and I had been King
Telemaine’s guests, traveling the kingdom and tending to the sickly.
Most of the people here fear and dislike bone witches, though with
lesser fervor than before. It is not easy to hold a grudge against
someone who has nursed you back to health.
At
the king’s invitation, Mykaela had taken up residence in the castle
indefinitely. But every day finds her weaker, and I feared the palace
would serve as her hospice.
“There are many other concerns, Tea. Likh has a new case pending, hasn’t he?”
The
asha association had rejected Likh’s appeal to join, but Polaire had
dredged up an obscure law that permitted Deathseekers to train in the
Willows until they turned fifteen, which was Likh’s current age.
Mykaela glanced over Fox’s shoulder, back at the catacombs, then turned away.
She still loves him, I thought, and fury burned through me like a fever. “I’m really sorry, Mykkie.”
She smiled. “As I said, only if you mean it, Tea. Get some rest. We’ve got a busy day ahead.”
* * *
I
listened until my brother’s footsteps faded before sneaking out of my
room a second time. I opened the doors of my mind to welcome the hidden
shadows; they wrapped around my core, creating a barrier that had for
many months prevented Fox from discovering the other sentience I hoarded
away, like a sweet vintage I had no intentions of sharing. I couldn’t.
Not yet.
Chief
waited for me at the stables. A lone woman on a horse caused no outcry,
and we rode undisturbed out of the city, into a copse of trees that hid
us further from view. I climbed off my stallion, told him to await my
return, and moved deeper into the forest, into a small clearing that
served as a rendezvous point.
I
reached out once more to the moving darkness. The scar on my right
thigh was hot to the touch. It burned in the cold air, but I felt no
pain.
Despite
its size, the beast was made of stealth and shadows. Where there was
once nothing, it now stood beside me, as if summoned from the air. Three
pairs of hooded eyes gazed down at me, forked tongues dancing. Its
wings extended, and twilight rolled over me, soothing and pleasant.
Master? It was a voice but not in the manner we think of voices. Our bond gave us an understanding that went beyond language.
I reached out. Its scaly hide was a combination of coarse bark and rough sandpaper.
Play? It sat, unmoving, as I climbed up its back.
Yes.
In the blink of an eye, we were soaring across the sky, rolling meadows and fields of green passing below us. Turn, I thought, testing the limits of my control, as I have over the last several months. The azi
complied, wings curving toward the horizon. I laughed, the sound joyous
and free against the wind, and one head dipped briefly to nuzzle at my
cheek, purring.
This is not selfishness, I told myself, but a responsibility.
Mykaela was partly right; I was arrogant and overconfident, but I was
not like other Dark asha. No other Dark asha had been able to tame the azi. And riding with it on quiet nights meant it was not rampaging through cities.
But
I also knew I had to keep my companion a secret. Raising a dead king
was a far lesser sin than taking a daeva as a familiar. I shall conquer this, I thought and, in doing so, sealed my fate.
Why are we at Daanoris?” I asked again when she paused. “Why won’t you tell me?”
“Because
I need you as a witness as well as a storyteller, Bard. You will not
remain unbiased for long if I supply you with foresight.”
“You summoned me. I travel with you. My opinions will make little difference.”
“You
have a reputation for impartiality, Bard. I trust your judgment and my
prudence. And here in Santiang, there is someone I would like you to
meet.”
“Who?”
“They
call him the Heartforger.” She flashed me a quick mischievous grin. “I
find it difficult to believe you will be so eager to rule in my favor
after the endless stretch of corpses I summoned in my wake. Or after
informing you of my intentions to take Daanoris. It is not easy to mask
your repugnance. Why have I come to Daanoris? Perhaps simply because I
can. Has that not crossed your mind?”
“Tea,” Kalen admonished, his voice low and amused.
She laughed. “Let me continue my story while we still have the luxury.”
The
shadows grew across the trees. The daeva melted slowly into the forest,
moving silently despite their sizes. No other sound passed through the
woods—no chirping of birds nor chatter of squirrels. There was only the
wind whispering through the leaves, the crackling of fire, and the sound
of the asha’s voice.
Other Works by Rin Chupeco:
The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch #1)Author: Rin Chupeco
Release Date: March 7, 2017
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
ISBN: 9781492652786
Summary:
When Tea accidentally resurrects her dead brother, she learns she is a different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in her community. But she finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training. There Tea learns to wield her magic in the face of dark forces and the deceit of those who would plot against her, including the ruling royals, who are waging their own war for control of the land.
Told from Tea’s perspective while she waits in exile, collecting the strength and force to combat those who killed her one true love, and a visiting Bard’s perspective, this is another magical tale woven by The Girl from the Well author.
Buy Links for The Bone Witch:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
BooksAMillion
!ndigo
Indiebound
The Suffering
Author: Rin Chupeco
Release Date: September 8, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
ISBN: 9781492629849
Summary:
After barely escaping the evil spirit that tried to destroy his soul, Tark vows to spend his life protecting the innocent. So when his mentor goes missing on a ghost-hunting expedition, Tark and Okiku join the search. But the Suicide Forest has seduced thousands of people to their deaths over the centuries and is thick with their sorrows.
With time running out and danger at every turn, Tark will either become a hero—or die trying.
Buy Links for The Suffering:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
BooksAMillion
!ndigo
Indiebound
Social Media:
Website: http://www.rinchupeco.com/
Twitter: @RinChupeco
Instagram: @rinchupeco
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