Priya was born a Temple Child, but she had only survived the deathless waters once when all the Temple Children were burnt. Now she lives as a servant, her powers diminished before she even fully began to understand them. Yet it is Priya’s destiny to be more.
Malini was born a princess. Her brother, the emperor, wants her to become a sacrifice. Unwilling to accept the fate her brother has chosen for her Malini decides to forge a new path. Yet her true path is one that neither of them could have foreseen.
Together Priya and Malini will achieve more than either of them ever set out to, but will they lose themselves along the way?
The love story in this book is tentative, but powerful. Two women, from two very different worlds, slowly learning to trust each other and using that trust to build bridges between their two peoples. However, even by the end of the book, these bonds are still tentative and it will be interesting to see how they will be tested in the next book. I also like that, for both of them, their love comes second to their personal goals and yet this does not seem to diminish the strength of it.
This book features multiple intriguing gods: the Yaksa, the Nameless God, and the Burning Mothers. Of these, only the Burning Mothers have yet to display any real presence or power. The Nameless God has his power in the prophetic names of his worshippers, an effective concept which allows some people to accept their fates and sends others on missions to seek them out. Despite actually appearing in the book, the Yaksa are much more mysterious. Their power is well evidenced in the Temple Children yet they seem to have some kind of further motive which is unclear. I am really looking forward to seeing this explored more in ‘The Oleander Sword’.
Escape to the Bookshelf 