[Children of the Desert 03] • Bells of the Kingdom

A young ha'ra'ha comes into his power.

A young human tries to escape his past.

A priest struggles with both.

To find redemption, they must risk their sanity--and their souls.

Idisio, once a street thief, has come a long way: from poverty to power is a heady ride. But his new place among those who rule the world is a precarious perch with a high price attached--and now he must learn how to balance his new power with his increasingly tenuous grasp on humanity. His new peers tell him ha'ra'hain do not have or need human ethics and emotions. His instincts tell him otherwise, but that path takes him down a dangerous road: one he might not survive.

Tanavin of the Aerthraim should be dead. Raised by Aerthraim Family and sent out to die as bait in a trap that saved a kingdom, he still bears terrible scars--and his continued survival is a dangerous secret. He becomes a mercenary in an effort to escape his past; when he encounters a childhood companion in need of protection, he must decide how far back into the games of the powerful he is willing to be drawn--and how much of himself he will risk.

Kolan of Arason fell in love with a ha'ra'ha--then ran from her, fleeing into the arms of the Arason branch of the Northern Church to become a priest. That decision cost him dearly, and cost her more. When he finds himself imprisoned with her, and the target of her long-restrained wrath, he has nothing to sustain his sanity but his faith. But when he escapes, he finds that faith in the darkness is an entirely different matter than faith under sunlight--and must choose which is more important: faith in the gods--or faith in one's love.

Ha'reye and humanity have misunderstood one another for over a thousand years--and that may be the only reason humanity still exists.