Secrets of the Sands

✍ Scribed by Leona Wisoker

• Publisher: Mercury Retrograde Press
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 262 KB
• Edition: 1. trade ed
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

When Cafad Scratha was a child, someone murdered his entire family. People have questioned his sanity ever since. As the last Scratha, he's dedicated his life to catching the murderers. Now a desert lord, one of the mysterious elite of the southlands, he stands above every mundane political imperative and rule of courtesy--or so it seems until the king of the northlands tries to bring Scratha to heel. Scratha's bizarre reaction throws the independent southlands into chaos: he hands temporary control of his family lands over to the king, takes on an assumed name, and sneaks out of the city. The king sends Alyea, a young noblewoman, to hold the ceded prize: but while she understands kingdom politics, she's quickly out of her depth in the byzantine world of the southlands. What she thought was a quick ticket to power turns out to be a dangerous assignment that may well lead her to a literal dead end. Just as trapped is Idisio, the orphaned street-thief sent by a chance encounter into Scratha's service. As his new and throughly unstable master goes undercover, Idisio finds himself drawn into the mysterious world of the desert lords and their secrets. Idisio's growing comprehension of the world he's stepped into doesn't just change his beliefs; it leads him to an unsuspected truth about himself that will change his life forever.

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From the Back Cover

A THIEF CHOOSES THE WRONG VICTIM.

A DESERT LORD ABANDONS HIS LANDS.

A YOUNG WOMAN ACCEPTS A STEWARDSHIP.

THEY ALL FIND THEIR DESTINY ON THE SANDS.

Idisio cuts the wrong purse and finds himself bound to serve a desert lord who just gave up his wealth, his lands, and his name to wander. His new master is the lone survivor of a massacred family and might be insane, but serving him is better than life on the streets.

Lady Alyea accepts the king's mission to assume stewardship of the desert lord's abandoned fortress. But the southern desert is a harsh world of violence, suspicion, and politically tangled family clans who worship the old gods. All her courtly manners are useless as she struggles to gain status in a deadly race for a prize she doesn't fully understand.

Out on the sands, the harsh glare of the sun reveals more about the world--and themselves--than they ever wanted to know.

About the Author

Leona Wisoker got her start as a writer when she was eight, with a story about all the vacuum cleaners in the world breaking down at the same time. Ever since then she has successfully used the excuse of writing to avoid housework, even going so far as writing poetry (which is then safely locked away in a lead-lined box) when nothing else will save her from chores. Leona s work is fueled equally by coffee and conviction; she has been known to take over the entire dining room to deconstruct a difficult novel-in-progress. Addicted to eclectic research and reading since childhood, she often chooses reading material alphabetically rather than by subject or author. This has led her to read about aardvarks, birds, child-warriors, dragons, eggs, faeries, ghosts, horses, and many other random subjects. Her short stories have appeared in Futures: Fire to Fly and Anotherealm; she is a regular reviewer for Green Man Review and Fantasy Magazine. She has lived in Florida, Connecticut, Oregon, New Hampshire, Nevada, Alaska, California, and Virginia; has experienced the alternate realities of Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, New York, and Italy; and believes that home is wherever my coffee cup is filled. She currently lives in Virginia with an extraordinarily patient husband and two large dogs, and she almost never vacuums.

Library : Fantasy
Universes : Children of the Desert [01]
Formats : EPUB
ISBN : 9780981988238