This series plunges readers into a world where magic intertwines with historical intrigue and political power struggles. Follow the journey of a young woman with extraordinary abilities who finds herself at the center of a fight for dominance. Her path is fraught with danger, ancient mysteries, and encounters with supernatural beings, forcing her to confront her destiny. The narrative explores themes of identity, courage, and finding one's place in a world determined to control it.
Sarah Calhoun is the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Elector Andrew Calhoun,
one of Appalachees military heroes and one of the electors who gets to decide
who will next ascend asthe Emperor of the New World. None of that matters to
Sarah. She has a natural talent for hexing and one bad eye, and all she wants
is to be left aloneespecially by outsiders. But Sarahs world gets turned on
its head at the Nashville Tobacco Fair when a Yankee wizard-priesttries to
kidnap her. Sarah fights back with the aid of a mysterious monk named
Thalanes, who is one of the not-quite-human Firstborn, the Moundbuilders of
the Ohio. It is Thalanes who reveals to
Sarah Calhoun paid a hard price for her entry onto the stage of the Empire's politics, but she survived. Now she rides north into the Ohio and her father's kingdom, Cahokia. To win the Serpent Throne, she'll have to defeat seven other candidates, win over the kingdom's regent, and learn the will of a hidden goddess--while mastering her people's inscrutable ways and watching her own back. In New Orleans, a new and unorthodox priest arises to plague the chevalier and embody the curse of the murdered Bishop Ukwu. He battles the chevalier's ordinary forces as well as a troop of Old World mamelukes for control of the city and the mouth of the great Mississippi River. Dodging between these rival titans, a crew of Catalan pirates--whose captain was once a close associate of Mad Hannah Penn--grapples with the chevalier over the fate of one of their mates. Meanwhile, a failed ceremony and a sick infant send the Anishinaabe hunter Ma'iingan on a journey across the Empire to Cavalier Johnsland, to a troubled foster child named Nathaniel. Ma'iingan is promised that Nathaniel is a mighty healer and can save his imperiled baby, but first Nathaniel--a pale young man with a twisted ear who hears the voices of unseen beings--must himself be rescued, from oppression, imprisonment, and madness
"An encounter with her father's goddess has not turned out to be the end for Sarah Elytharias Penn. Now, with the Imperial fist tightened around her city of Cahokia and the beastkind of the Heron King ravaging across the river, she must find a way to access the power of the Serpent Throne itself--a feat, she has learned, that her father never accomplished. To complicate her efforts, Cahokia's Metropolitan, a beloved and charismatic priest who despises the goddess as a demon, returns from a long pilgrimage and attempts to finalize the Wisdom-eradicating reform that dogged Sarah's father when he was king. Meanwhile, Sarah's brother Nathaniel and her brilliant but erratic servant Jacob Hop find their steps dogged by the Emperor's Machiavel, Temple Franklin, as they hunt in New Amsterdam for the third Elytharias sibling. Isaiah Wilkes, having failed to awaken the Emperor by reminding him of his esoteric obligations, now travels north in disguise to seek other allies to stand against the destroying storm of the reign of Simon Sword. Chigozie Ukwu, the Shepherd of the Still Waters, finds his peaceful flock threatened and pressed into a dangerous mission in the service of Cahokia's wild sister city Zomas, while his brother, the Vodun houngan Etienne Ukwu, pushes toward a final showdown with the mameluke assassins of the Chevalier of New Orleans"-- Provided by publisher
Sarah Calhoun has taken her father's throne and ascended to her goddess's presence, a feat her father never achieved. However, she is dying, and her uncle, Thomas Penn, is determined to dethrone her. Armed with new powers from the Necromancer and bolstered by an impending marriage, Penn seeks to eliminate Sarah from both her throne and the living world. Meanwhile, Sarah's relationship with a close ally has soured as her brother Nathaniel, against her wishes, ventures into Imperial Philadelphia with the reckless goal of healing Emperor Thomas. On the northern shores, agents of Franklin's Conventicle, linked to the Emperor, are trying to gain support from the pole-dwelling giants, who face a dilemma between seizing land from the Firstborn of the Ohio and openly joining Simon Sword's cause. In the west, the Heron King unleashes chaos, threatening Sarah's Cahokia. To survive and gain the strength needed for this daunting war, Sarah must unite the Moundbuilder kings to perform an ancient rite that will elevate her beyond mortality. This requires winning over skeptics among the Firstborn kings while quelling a rebellion among her goddess's Handmaids, some of whom yearn for the dark past of human sacrifice and are willing to sacrifice Sarah herself.
