The Lost Reliquary

Ely (Gunslinger Girl) opens a fantasy duology with this rugged epic about heroes and heretics. The goddess Tempetra-Innara killed the last of her siblings a century ago, making herself the sole deity worshipped in the Devoted Lands. Now, in the holy city of Lumeris, Potentiate Lys of the Dawn Cloister dreams of killing the goddess. As a child she was abducted and conscripted into Tempestra-Innara’s service and gifted with speed, strength, and resilience, but she longs for freedom. Unfortunately, harming the goddess seems impossible—until the day when the heretic Emmaus is brought before the goddess for execution. Before Tempestra-Innara can strike, Emmaus drinks an elixir that transforms him into a tentacled beast and manages to cause serious damage to the goddess’s host body. It becomes clear that he had somehow obtained the blood of one of Tempestra-Innara’s siblings. The goddess sends Lys and Nolan, the exceptionally devout champion of the Dusk Cloister, to investigate. But while Nolan is eager to save Tempestra-Innara, Lys sees a possible way out. The multilayered mythology, ambitious quest narrative, and urgency of Lys’s sarcastic narrative voice keep the pages flying. With twists, betrayals, and revelations aplenty, this will have readers hooked. (Oct.)