Described as “ Princess MononokemeetsStardust , ” Cassandra Rose Clarke ’s phantasy novel The Beholden follows sister who make a despairing deal with agoddessand must manage with the consequences when their throwaway hail due . io9 just so happens to have the beautiful cover and an exciting excerpt to let on today !
Two sisters , a pregnant aristocrat and a scholar - magician , owe a party favor to a river goddess and find themselves at the center of a engagement between the immortal being Decay and the Emperor himself , as the goddess calls upon them to seek out this elusive god before the man crumble around them all .
Orphaned as young women , Celestia and Izara De Malena find themselves set ashore rich but destitute , with only a miscarry rain forest land area , Celestia ’s perfect manners , and Izara ’s nascent thaumaturgy to their gentle name . With the last of their money running out , they ordain a dangerous program — using a go she does n’t fully read , Izara summons the Lady of the Seraphine and demands a favor : a husband for Celestia , one rich enough to activate the De Malena sisters to keep their land and restore their family name . But a favor from the river goddess always come up at a price . . .
Crop of the cover of The Beholden by Cassandra Rose Clarke; the cover was created by artist Kristina Carroll and designer Dana Li.Image: Erewhon
Now , five year later on , as rumor of state of war and disease spread across the country , Celestia ’s husband is call away on a secret mission for the Emperor and the Lady of the Seraphine returns to pull together her due . Izara will be forced to will the academy where she has been analyze to become a mage ; Celestia will be pulled from her now - flourishing farm while freshly pregnant with her first child . Together , they must repay their debt to the Lady — embarking on a mission that will put them on a hit form with Celestia ’s husband , the Emperor , and a god even more powerful than the Lady of the Seraphine .
Here ’s the full , stunning cover by artist Kristina Carroll and designer Dana Li , followed by the excerpt .
The sister walked before of him , side by side . Ico stared at the back of their head . As long as he could see them — could see other humans — he could keep himself calm .
Image: Erewhon
When he present up piracy , he thought he ’d given up this kind of dangerous undertaking shit , too . But apparently not .
The apparent one stopped . Ico nearly run into her .
“ What ’s function — ” he started , but the reasonably one fixed an icy glare on him . Right . Keep still .
The plain one tilted her foreland , as if she were listening to music . The forest was dead quiet . Ico hated it .
“ This style , ” the unvarnished one whisper , and then veered off to the leftfield . Ico followed , realise that the path snag . terrific . He hoped Iomin ’s Treasure was enough to send them on the right way .
They walked , their stride rackety in the silent forest . Those eerie floating light trailed along around them . The lights had multiplied , and they generate enough of a gleaming that the trees and the girl cast foresighted shadow along the path . Ico achieve up and pass over some of the sweat from his supercilium . The night was balmy , almost cool , but he did n’t know what they were going to find at the end of this way of life and that had him unquiet . He think about Calix sitting in the riverboat . Probably smoking his pipe , polishing that panga he was so deuced proud of . numerate the requital from these two insane sister .
Ico tapped the pretty one on the shoulder . He did n’t want to see what would happen if he disturbed the other one . The pretty one peek over at him . Her oculus glitter from the swim lights .
“ We there yet ? ” Ico need .
“ Do n’t enquire that , ” said the plain one , still staring straight forward . “ I have to concentrate to receive the Lady . ”
“ She has to focus , ” hissed the pretty one before turning away from him . Ico sighed . Lights crowded among the tree limb . He wished he was back on the sauceboat with Calix . Wished he was just ferrying rider back and off between Jaila - Seraphine and Kalen - Seraphine , like he ’d been doing for the last month . Boring workplace but at least the wood there lift with sound , at least you could hear the monkeys and the boo shrieking in the canopy . At least there you could find other people instead of these damned floating light .
And then Ico hear something . A whisper , a babble —
No , he ’d been a sea robber long enough to bang easily . water supply .
It was n’t the sound of the Seraphine right . That Ico could realize immediately , and anyway the Seraphine did n’t babble . It yaup . This sounded more like a stream , some slight runnel — or a feeder .
stale sweat prickle over Ico ’s tegument . The Lady ’s Tributary .
The unornamented one slow down her manner of walking and held up a hand . Ico and her sister cease . Ico craned his chief around the two baby , trying to see the path up ahead . But the luminosity were swarm , blinding him .
The babbling of the water grew louder , sounding more and more like articulation .
The plain one gulped down deep breaths of gentle wind , her hand tugging nervously at her skirts . The pretty one star at her in alarm .
Ico pulled out his tongue .
The guggle voices rose up around them . Ico thought he could make out words . He think he heard his name , his full name , his Akuranese name , Ishi Kui Ico . He think he heard pieces of the language he ’d speak as a child , a terminology he had n’t address for closely ten geezerhood , ever since he left home . He could still understand it . My Akuran minor , the voice enounce . Welcome to the Seraphine .
One of the sis countenance out a longsighted , sharp gasp . The pretty one stumbled backward , her bridge player over her mouth . She knocked into Ico . He immediately gripped her arms to steady her before step in front of her , knife out , quick to agitate for her like a gentleman .
The knife landed with a powdery thud on the forest floor .
Standing in the path before him was a woman . Her cutis was dark like river water , and water supply rain buckets out of her hair , running in shiny streams over her defenseless form . Ico look at her for half a 2nd and his eyes burned and he rip his gaze away , down to the forest floor , where his imagination crackled and struggle .
“ Welcome , girl of the Seraphine , ” the woman said in her blab voice .
With a strangle cry , the pretty one vanish to her knees , her chief down , bowing like she ’d come before the Emperor himself . The plain one stayed standing , her regard lifted . How could she count at that woman head up on ? Ico film a gradation back , set down down to one genu . best to do what the pretty one did , he resolve .
The womanhood laughed . It sounded like rain falling across the Seraphine .
“ Those who can encounter me , ” she said , “ do not need to submit to me . Stand . Both of you . ”
Ico ’s buttock burned . He was reminded of his mother , objurgate him in a garden . He stood , shakily . peer up at the womanhood again . The water flowed and feed over the telephone circuit of her physical structure . She was daze . Too daze for someone like him . He wait away .
“ Why do you come here ? ” the adult female tell .
No answer . Ico peered over at the pretty one but she was gaping at the woman , her cheek slackened with awe , her eyes filled with stars . He glanced over at the plain one . She had n’t moved once since the womanhood appeared , but now she stepped forrard . Ico star at her , trembling . She look at the cleaning woman . Her workforce grapple her skirt , the only disturbance in her unagitated outside .
“ Taja , ” she said .
Silence . Ico put on the line a glance at the woman . But that divine nerve was unreadable .
“ You know my name , ” she suppose .
“ Yes , ” read the plain one .
“ And how did you instruct my name , Daughter of the Seraphine ? ”
The unmistakable one hesitated . Ico could listen a rush in his capitulum — he did n’t know if it was blood pumping into his brain or the forest finally reacting .
“ I read it in a book , ” the plain one enunciate .
“ A book ? ” More laugh . The float lights bobbed around . “ Quite a girl , to have memory access to a book which contains my name . ”
The unpatterned one sink her head . “ I suppose so , my Lady . ”
“ My Lady Taja , ” the cleaning lady corrected . “ If you eff my name , you should speak it . ”
Ico reached up and wiped at the sweat forming on his brow . The char moved forward , her steps leaving damp imprints on the mulchy priming . Beside him , the pretty one tense , but the plain one admit her place , head lifted .
“ You never answered my interrogation , ” said the woman . Taja . But Ico could n’t support to recollect of her in terms of her name . It felt like an abomination . “ Why are you here ? If you know my name , then I suppose you want something from me . ”
For the first meter , the evident one dropped her regard . The fair sex smile , an spark of light that spread out over the forest . Ico closed his center , firework dance on his eyelid .
“ We have a request , yes , ” said the unmingled one .
Ico ’s foreland throbbed . A postulation .
With that word , he understood immediately what this woman was . An Airiana . This was why they ’d come all this way , why they ’d lease Calix and his riverboat , why Ico was cowering in the forest . Because the two sis wanted something .
“ My baby has a request , ” the unmistakable one say .
Ico blinked . That , he had n’t expected . He looked over at the pretty one , whose face had gone ash-gray in the weird light of the Lady ’s Tributary .
“ Is that so ? ” the woman asked .
Ico keep his gaze on the pretty one as she spoke . She did n’t look out either . He did n’t understand how they could look without their eyes combust . peradventure their eyes did n’t burn off . perhaps they did , and the sisters just did n’t handle .
“ Yes , my Lady , ” the pretty one read .
“ And what is your request ? ”
The intact woods guard its breath . Ico catch the pretty one ’s mouth , her lips pallid and wry . What could maybe be worth the journeying , the magic , the risk of destruction ?
“ I would like a husband , ” the pretty one say .
Ico blink away .
“ A hubby ? ” said the woman .
“ Yes , ” said the pretty one .
“ Shall he be handsome and genial , with a blue touch and a way with animals ? ”
The pretty one shook her mind . She was daze , Ico recall , delirious . And really , truly insane .
All this for a married man .
“ No ? ” said the woman . A teasing lightness arise the edges of her voice , still babbling like a brook . “ You ’d like him to be horrifying and roughshod ? ”
The pretty one close her eyes . Her sister was star at her now , her expression darkness . She was fucking it up , Ico recognize .
“ No , ” the pretty one read , and her eyes opened and she drag up her shoulder . “ He should be kind , yes , but most important he should be moneyed . My family — ” Here she gestured at her babe “ — We have kept our titles and our kingdom but the coin are running out . Our riches is move . The lands still produce as they should — ” She take a abstruse breath and count at her sister and her sister looked back and something flashed between them . Ico did n’t cognize what , and he did n’t wish . He just want this terrorize farce to end . “ But the land are not enough . Not anymore . ”
The pretty one glance at her sister .
“ I would wish a husband who will care for me with obedience , and run to our land as they should be tended to . A husband who will produce an inheritor . But he must have riches of his own , if our family is to riposte to their former nimbus . ”
secrecy . Ico lifted his gaze just enough to peer at the Lady of the Seraphine . Through the burning at the stake of his regard he thought she face amused .
“ A wealthy married man , ” she said . “ I suppose I can grant that asking . ”
Both of the Sister sagged with backup man . The pretty one even smiled and grabbed her sister ’s hand . “ give thanks you , ” she state . “ Thank you , Lady , I — ”
“ There will be a price . ”
The pretty one ’s smile vanished . Ice cower through Ico ’s limb . A cost . A dealing with the Airiana was never a wise decision , even he knew that . He wished he could nobble away , run back through the forest and rise back aboard the riverboat . It was n’t his dealings but he was going to get get up in it . He could just experience it , an free energy sparking on the airwave .
“ A cost , Lady Taja ? ” enjoin the sheer one . Her eyes were spacious — in all likelihood cogitate just sleep together the name was enough . slaphappy girl . She should have known substantially .
“ Of of course . I ca n’t simply grant wishes . ” The womanhood laughed . Ico was n’t indisputable he ’d ever be able to resist the sound of pelting again . “ I will grant Celestia De Malena a kind and loaded married man , but you will be beholden to me for one favor . ” The woman moved forward . Ico resisted the urge to extract away . She put her manus on the pretty one ’s grimace . “ You are beholden , ” she articulate , and when she slipped her hand out she left a damp mark on the pretty one ’s cheek , a smear of argent light that faded away in the pair of a heartbeat . Then the woman ferment to the unpatterned one , and she did the same thing , cupping her face in her bridge player . The unornamented one closed her eyes . “ And you are beholden . ”
Ico stepped back . His blood pumped . He could hunt down , permit Calex take on whatever debt he was about to owe . flow direct into the woodland . He could survive in the wild ; he ’d done it before . Done it at ocean , when the smart water supply threatened to melt down ironical .
The char stepped toward him . He forced himself to look at her , his center watering . She smiled . Her haircloth hung in tight , silky ropes over her shoulders , water streaming over her body like a nightie . Her eyes were as bright as suns .
“ Please , ” Ico sputtered , “ I ’m just their guide . I ’m not part of this . ”
“ You are here , ” the woman said .
ascendent beshrew it all , thought Ico , just as her deal pressed against his cheek . Her soupcon was insensate and cockeyed like the Seraphine itself . Ico sucked in breath . He wanted to tear away but he could n’t move . Her stony fingernails scraped against him : a warning , he imagine , against protesting further .
“ And you , ” she say , “ are beholden . ”
Excerpt from The Beholden by Cassandra Rose Clarke reprint by permit . Copyright Erewhon .
Cassandra Rose Clarke ’s The Beholden will be out in tardy 2021 ; you may pre - order a copyhere .
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