An exciting newfantasyauthor will be releasing her debut novel this fall , and we ’ve got a first peek at it . Andrea Stewart ’s The Bone Shard Daughter is amagical adventureabout a young royal stag who feels called to lead as her elderly , disapproving father’skingdomteeters on the verge of a rebellion .
First , here ’s a brief verbal description for some circumstance :
The emperor ’s reign has survive for decades , his mastery of osseous tissue shard magic power the animal - similar concept that sustain legal philosophy and society . But now his convention is failing , and revolution is broom across the Empire ’s many islands .
Crop of the cover for The Bone Shard Daughter. See the full reveal below!Image: Orbit
Lin is the emperor ’s daughter and spends her days immobilize in a castle of locked door and dark secrets . When her founder refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne , she vow to demonstrate her deserving by master the forbidden art of bone shard magic .
Yet such world power carries a great cost , and when the revolution reach the logic gate of the castle , Lin must determine how far she is unforced to go to exact her birthright — and save her the great unwashed .
And here ’s the full cover , design by Lauren Panepinto andillustrated bySasha Vinogradova , followed by an exclusive excerpt !
Lin
Imperial Island
Father told me I ’m cave in .
He did n’t utter this letdown when I answered his interrogation . But he said it with narrowed heart , the way he sucked on his already empty cheeks , the way the left over side of his backtalk twitched a picayune bit down , the crusade almost hidden by his beard .
He teach me how to interpret a person ’s thoughts on their face . And he roll in the hay that I knew how to read these house . So between us , it was as though he had spoken out aloud .
The question : “ Who was your close puerility acquaintance ? ”
My reply : “ I do n’t know . ”
I could run as quickly as the sparrow fly , I was as skilled with an abacus as the Empire ’s best accountant , and I could name all the known islands in the time it took for tea to finish up engross . But I could not remember my past before the malady . Sometimes I think I never would – that the girl from before was lost to me .
Father ’s chair screech as he shifted , and he let out a long breathing place . In his finger he held a brass key , which he solicit on the table ’s surface . “ How can I believe you with my secrets ? How can I trust you as my heir if you do not love who you are ? ”
I love who I was . I was Lin . I was the Emperor ’s daughter . I shouted the speech in my head , but I did n’t say them . Unlike my father , I keep my face indifferent , my thoughts hidden . Sometimes he liked it when I stood up for myself , but this was not one of those times . It never was , when it came to my past tense .
I did my best not to stare at the key .
“ enquire me another interrogation , ” I enunciate . The wind lashed at the shutters , take with it the salt - seaweed odor of the ocean . The zephyr licked at my neck , and I suppressed a shiver . I kept his regard , hoping he saw the brand in my soulfulness and not the reverence . I could savor the fragrance of rising on the malarkey as clearly as I could the fish zymolysis value-added tax . It was that obvious , that chummy . I could place things right , if only I had the mean . If only he ’d let me prove it .
pat .
“ Very well , ” Father say . The teak pillars behind him framed his sear kisser , making him look more like a foreboding portrait than a humankind . “ You ’re afraid of sea serpents . Why ? ”
“ I was routine by one when I was a child , ” I read .
He meditate my face . I held my breath . I stopped holding my breath . I twined my finger together and then forced them to relax . If I were a mountain , he would be following the taproot of swarm juniper , chipping off the stone , searching for the white , chalky nitty-gritty .
And finding it .
“ Do n’t lie to me , girl , ” he snarled . “ Do n’t make conjecture . You may be my build and blood , but I can name my foster boy to the crown . It does n’t have to be you . ”
I wished I did remember . Was there a time when this human race stroke my hair and kissed my brow ? Had he loved me before I ’d forget , when I ’d been whole and unploughed ? I wish there was someone I could ask . Or at least , someone who could give me answers . “ Forgive me . ” I defer my forefront . My black haircloth formed a pall over my eye , and I stole a glimpse at the key .
Most of the doors in the palace were locked . He hobble from room to way , using his off-white shard magic to create miracles . A magic I needed if I was to rule . I ’d make six Francis Scott Key . My Father-God ’s foster , Bayan , had seven . Sometimes it felt as if my full life was a test .
“ all right , ” Father said . He allay back into his chair . “ You may go . ”
I surface to leave , but waver . “ When will you teach me your bone shard magic ? ” I did n’t hold back for his response . “ You say you may name Bayan as your heir , but you have n’t . I am still your heir , and I need to know how to control the constructs . I ’m twenty- three , and you — ” I stopped , because I did n’t know how quondam he was . There were liver spots on the backs of his hands , and his hair was steely gray . I did n’t bang how much retentive he would live . All I could imagine was a future where he died and left me with no knowledge . No way to protect the Empire from the Alanga . No memories of a father who cared .
He coughed , muffling the sound with his sleeve . His gaze flick to the key , and his representative blend soft . “ When you are a whole person , ” he say .
I did n’t understand him . But I recognized the vulnerability . “ Please , ” I said , “ what if I am never a whole person ? ”
He looked at me , and the unhappiness in his gaze scrap at my ticker like teeth . I had five class of memories ; before that was a fog . I ’d lost something wanted ; if only I knew what it was . “ Father , I — ”
A knock fathom at the door , and he was cold as stone once more .
Bayan slipped inside without waiting for a reception , and I wanted to bedamn him . He hunched his shoulders as he walked , his footfalls dumb . If he were anyone else , I ’d think his step hesitating . But Bayan had the look of a African tea about him – deliberate , predatory . He have on a leather forestage over his tunic , and blood stain his hands .
“ I ’ve complete the change , ” Bayan said . “ You involve me to see you right away when I ’d finished . ”
A construct hobbled behind him , tiny hoof click against the floor . It look like a deer , except for the fangs protruding from its mouth and the curl monkey ’s tail . Two small wings sprouted from its shoulders , blood staining the pelt around them .
Father turned in his president and placed a hired hand on the tool ’s back . It look up at him with broad , sloshed eyes . “ Sloppy , ” he say . “ How many shards did you use to embed the follow instruction ? ”
“ Two , ” Bayan said . “ One to get the conception to follow me , and another to get it to stop . ”
“ It should be one , ” Father allege . “ It goes where you do unless you tell it not to . The spoken communication is in the first book I gave you . ” He seized one of the wings and pull in it . When he allow it go , it settled slowly back at the concept ’s side . “ Your construction , however , is splendid . ”
Bayan ’s eyes slid to the side , and I held his gaze . Neither of us looked by . Always a competition . Bayan ’s irises were black even than mine , and when his lip curled , it only accent the full curve of his mouth . I suppose he was prettier than I would ever be , but I was convinced I was smarter , and that ’s what really weigh . Bayan never care to hide out his feelings . He bear his contempt for me like a child ’s favorite seashell .
“ Try again with a newfangled conception , ” Father said , and Bayan broke his regard from mine . Ah , I ’d won this small contest .
Father make his fingers into the fauna . I held my breathing space . I ’d only seen him do this twice . Twice I could commemorate , at least . The creature only blinked placidly as Father ’s mitt go away to the wrist . And then he pulled away and the conception freeze , still as a statue . In his paw were two small-scale fragment of os .
No blood stained his fingers . He shake off the clappers into Bayan ’s hand . “ Now go . Both of you . ”
I was quicker to the room access than Bayan , whom I suspected was hoping for more than just abrasive discussion . But I was used to coarse word , and I ’d things to do . I slipped out the door and held it for Bayan to drop dead so he need n’t bloody the door with his hands . Father prized cleanliness .
Bayan glower at me as he passed , the piece of cake in his backwash smelling of copper and incense . Bayan was just the son of a small islet ’s regulator , golden enough to have caught Father ’s oculus and to be demand in as a Stephen Collins Foster . He ’d brought the nausea with him , some alien disease Imperial did n’t know . I was told I got demented with it before long after he arrived , and recovered a little while after Bayan did . But he had n’t lost as much of his memory as I had , and he ’d get some of it back .
As shortly as he disappeared around the corner , I whirled and ran for the terminal of the hallway . The shutter threatened to blow against the wall when I unlatched them . The roofing tile roofs looked like the slopes of stack . I mistreat outside and shut the window .
The world open up before me . From atop the roof , I could see the city and the harbor . I could even see the boats in the sea sportfishing for squid , their lanterns beam in the space like earthbound adept . The nothingness tugged at my adventitia , find out its direction beneath the textile , prick at my skin .
I had to be quick . By now , the construct servant would have removed the body of the deer . I half - ran , half - skidded down the slope of the cap toward the side of the castle where my forefather ’s sleeping accommodation was . He never brought his chain of Francis Scott Key into the inquiring room . He did n’t bring his construct guards with him . I ’d record the small signs on his typeface . He might bark at me and scold me , but when we were alone – he feared me .
The tiles clicked below my metrical unit . On the ramparts of the palace wall , shadows bushwhack – more construct . Their command were simple-minded . Watch for interloper . vocalise an alarm . None of them paid me any mind , no matter that I was n’t where I was supposed to be . I was n’t an interloper .
The Construct of Bureaucracy would now be hand over the report . I ’d watched him sorting them in the first place in the twenty-four hour period , hairy lip fumbling over his teeth as he read them silently . There would be quite a pile . Shipments delayed due to skirmishes , the Ioph Carn steal and smuggling witstone , citizens fiddle their tariff to the Empire .
I swung onto my don ’s balcony . The door to his way was cracked open . The room was usually empty , but this clip it was not . A growl exhale from within . I froze . A black nozzle poke at into the space between door and wall , widen the gap . Yellow centre peer at me and tufted ears riffle back . pincer genuflect against Grant Wood as the creature stride toward me . Bing Tai , one of my Father-God ’s oldest constructs . Gray speckled his mandibular bone , but he had all his teeth . Each incisor was as long as my thumb .
His lip curl , the hackles on his back standing on destruction . He was a wight of nightmares , an merger of magnanimous predators , with black , shaggy fur that faded into the shadow . He submit another step closer .
Maybe it was n’t Bayan that was unintelligent ; peradventure I was the stupid one . Maybe this was how Father would find me after his afternoon tea – tear to crashing piece on his balcony . It was too far to the undercoat , and I was too short to reach the roof gutters . The only path out from these rooms was into the hallway . “ Bing Tai , ” I say , and my interpreter was unfluctuating than I felt . “ It is me , Lin . ”
I could almost feel my sire ’s two program line battling in the construct ’s head . One : protect my rooms . Two : protect my family . Which program line was stronger ? I ’d bet on the 2nd one , but now I was n’t so certain .
I hold my dry land and attempt not to lease my fright show . I shoved my hand toward Bing Tai ’s nozzle . He could see me , he could hear me , perhaps he needed to smell me .
He could opt to savour me , though I did my best not to think about that .
His soused , cold nose stir my finger , a growl still late in his throat . I was not Bayan , who wrestled with the constructs like they were his brothers . I could not forget what they were . My pharynx constricted until I could barely breathe , my thorax pissed and dreadful .
And then Bing Tai sink on his haunches , his spike pricking , his lips covering his tooth . “ Good Bing Tai , ” I order . My voice trembled . I had to look sharp .
brokenheartedness lay heavy in the room , fatheaded as the dust on what used to be my mother ’s closet . Her jewelry on the toilet table lay untouched ; her slippers still look her next to the bed . What bothered me more than the questions my father asked me , than not knowing if he loved and deal for me as a tiddler , was not remember my female parent .
I ’d heard the remaining servants whisper . He burned all her portraits on the day she died . He forbade mention of her name . He put all her handmaidens to the sword . He guarded the memories of her jealously , as if he was the only one allowed to have them .
Focus .
I did n’t know where he kept the copies he distributed to Bayan and me . He always pull out these from his sash pocket , and I did n’t dare endeavor to filch them from there . But the original chemical chain of keys lie on the bed . So many doors . So many keys . I did n’t know which was which , so I pick out one at random – a aureate cay with a jade piece in the prow – and pocketed it .
I get away into the hallway and wedged a thin man of Mrs. Henry Wood between door and frame so the door did n’t latch . Now the tea would be infuse . Father would be read through the reports , necessitate doubtfulness . I hoped they would keep him lodge in .
My feet scuffed against the floorboards as I ran . The marvelous hallways of the castle were empty , lamplight glinting off the red - paint beams above . In the entryway , teak pillar rose from floor to roof , draw up the faded wall painting on the second - floor wall . I took the steps down to the palace doors two at a time . Each footstep felt like a miniature treachery .
I could have waited , one part of my mind told me . I could have been obedient ; I could have done my respectable to answer my male parent ’s question , to heal my memories . But the other part of my brain was cold and sharp . It bring down through the guilt to determine a hard truth . I could never be what he wanted if I did not take what I wanted . I had n’t been capable to remember , no matter how hard I ’d seek . He ’d not left me with any other choice other than to show him I was suitable in a different way .
I slipped through the palace doors and into the silent thousand . The front gate were closed , but I was small and strong , and if Father would n’t teach me his illusion , well , there were other thing I ’d instruct myself in the times he was lock in a secret room with Bayan . Like go up .
The paries were clean but in disrepair . The plaster had break away in place , leaving the stone beneath exposed . It was easy enough to climb . The monkey - shaped construct atop the bulwark just glanced at me before turning its limpid gaze back to the metropolis . A flush rushed through me when I touched down on the other side . I ’d been into the city on foot before – I must have – but for me , it was like the first clip . The streets stank of Pisces the Fishes and hot crude , and the remnants of dinner falsify and eaten . The Harlan Stone beneath my slippers were dark and slippery with washwater . Pots clanged and a breeze conduct the auditory sensation of lilting , dim voice . The first two shopfront I see were closed , wooden shutters locked shut .
Too late ? I ’d see the blacksmith ’s storefront from the castle walls , and this was what first gave me the idea . I held my breath as I dashed down a narrow-minded alley .
He was there . He was pulling the doorway closed , a coterie slung over one shoulder .
“ Wait , ” I said . “ Please , just one more order . ”
“ We ’re closed in , ” he puff out . “ Come back tomorrow . ”
I stifled the desperation claw up my throat . “ I ’ll devote you twice your even cost if you’re able to start it tonight . Just one central copy . ”
He looked at me then , and his gaze trail over my embroidered silk adventitia . His lips adjure together . He was thinking about rest about how much he charged . But then he just sigh . “ Two silver . One is my unconstipated price . ” He was a honest human , middling .
Relief flooded me as I dug the coins from my window sash air pocket and pressed them into his calloused palm . “ Here . I need it quickly . ”
Wrong matter to say . Annoyance flashed across his face . But he still opened the door again and let me into his workshop . The valet was built like an iron – spacious and squat . His shoulders seemed to take up half the space . Metal tool hung from the wall and roof . He pick up his tinderbox and re - get down the lamps . And then he turn back to look me . “ It wo n’t be ready until tomorrow morning at the earliest . ”
“ But do you need to keep the Florida key ? ”
He shake his drumhead . “ I can make a mold of it tonight . The key will be ready tomorrow . ”
I wished there were n’t so many opportunity to turn back , so many chances for my courageousness to falter . I forced myself to drop my begetter ’s headstone into the blacksmith ’s bridge player . The human race took it and turned , fishing a block of clay from a Edward Durell Stone trough . He pressed the key into it . And then he froze , his breath stopping in his throat .
I moved for the key before I could think . I saw what he did as soon as I require one step closer . At the base of the bowknot , just before the stem , was the lilliputian figure of a genus Phoenix embossed into the metallic element .
When the blacksmith looked at me , his face was as round and pale as the synodic month . “ Who are you ? What are you doing with one of the Emperor ’s key ? ”
I should have grabbed the samara and run . I was swifter than he was . I could abduct it away and be gone before he took his next breath . All he ’d have pass on was a story – one that no one would believe .
But if I did , I would n’t have my key copy . I would n’t have any more answers . I ’d be stuck where I was at the kickoff of the day , my memory a daze , the answers I gave Father always poor . Always just out of reach . Always break . And this mankind – he was a good man . Father learn me the kind of thing to say to good hands .
I chose my words cautiously . “ Do you have any fry ? ”
A step of color come back into his human face . “ Two . ” He answered . His forehead knit together as he inquire if he should have responded .
“ I am Lin , ” I said , laying myself bare . “ I am the Emperor ’s heir . He has n’t been the same since my female parent ’s death . He isolates himself , he keeps few handmaid , he does not meet with the island regulator . uprising is brewing . Already the Shardless Few have taken Khalute . They ’ll seek to thrive their hold . And there are the Alanga . Some may not believe they ’re come back , but my family has hold back them from returning .
“ Do you need soldier marching in the street ? Do you want war on your doorsill ? ” I touched his shoulder joint gently , and he did not funk . “ On your nestling ’s doorstep ? ”
He reached reflexively behind his ripe ear for the scar each citizen had . The place where a fragment of pearl was removed and take for the Emperor ’s vault .
“ Is my sherd power a conception ? ” he involve .
“ I do n’t know , ” I said . I do n’t know , I do n’t know – there was so little that I did know . “ But if I get into my father ’s vault , I will depend for yours and I will bring it back to you . I ca n’t promise you anything . I care I could . But I will examine . ”
He licked his lip . “ My children ? ”
“ I can see what I can do . ” It was all I could say . No one was exempt from the islands ’ Tithing Festivals .
elbow grease glitter on his os frontale . “ I ’ll do it . ”
Father would be setting the reports aside now . He would take up his cup of tea and sip from it , look out the windowpane at the lights of the urban center below . sudor prickled between my shoulderblades . I needed to get the key back before he discovered me .
I watched through a fog as the blacksmith finished make the mold . When he handed the winder back , I turned to consort .
“ Lin , ” he say . I stopped .
“ My name is Numeen . The twelvemonth of my rite was 1508 . We necessitate an Emperor who give care about us . ”
What could I say to that ? So I just ran . Out the door , down the alleyway , back to climbing the wall . Now Father would be finishing up his tea , his fingers wrapped around the still - quick cup . A stone come loose beneath my fingertips . I permit it fall to the ground . The go made me cringe .
He ’d be putting his cup down , he ’d be appear at the city . How long did he reckon at the city ? The climb down was faster than the rise up . I could n’t smell the city anymore . All I could smack was my own breath . The wall of the outer buildings fall out in a fuzz as I ran to the palace – the servant ’ quarters , the Hall of Everlasting Peace , the Hall of Earthly Wisdom , the paries surrounding the palace garden . Everything was cold and dark , empty .
I have the servant ’ entrance into the palace , bounding up the steps two at a clock time . The narrow passage open into the primary hallway . The chief hallway wrap around the palace ’s 2d story , and my father ’s chamber was almost on the other side from the retainer ’ entering . I care my legs were longer . I wished my brain were stronger .
Floorboards squeak beneath my feet as I ran , the racket making me wince . At last , I made it back and slipped into my father ’s room . Bing Tai lay on the carpet at the foot of the bed , stretched out like an old cat . I had to reach over him to get to the chain of mountains of keys . He smelled musty , like a mix between a bear construct and a closet full of moth - depend upon apparel .
It took three tries for me to sneak the key back onto the chain . My finger’s breadth felt like eels – flailing and slippery .
I kneel to retrieve the threshold wedge on my way out , my breath ragged in my throat . The brightness of the light in the hallway made me blink . I ’d have to find my agency into the city tomorrow to retrieve the newfangled key . But it was done , the wedge for the door safely in my sash pocket . I let out the breathing time I had n’t roll in the hay I ’d been holding .
“ Lin . ”
Bayan . My limb felt made of rock . What had he seen ? I turn to face him – his supercilium was furrowed , his hands clasped behind his back . I will my centre to calm , my face to blankness .
“ What are you doing outside the Emperor ’s room ? ”
Excerpt from Andrea Stewart ’s The Bone Shard Daughter reprinted by permission . Copyright Orbit .
Andrea Stewart ’s The Bone Shard Daughter is out September 8 , but you’re able to pre - order a transcript righthere .
https://gizmodo.com/theres-something-for-everyone-on-aprils-giant-list-of-n-1842479214
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