PRICE OF INNOCENCE

In Piper’s dark fantasy debut, a child is raised for greatness by a cruel regime.

In the kingdom of Stellamar, most of the members of the royal family have been slain. Queen Aspera Leofric-Aurboret has taken the throne left by her parents and brother. She summons the Black Knight Raolin to her chambers to hear word of his brother Lucrid, who hunts the royal murderers. When he arrives, she wears only a robe and offers him wine. Aspera then reveals that Lucrid is dead, killed by her own men who will also hunt the rest of the Uland clan. Raolin is enraged, but she nevertheless seduces him, promising that Lucrid’s infant son will be knighted and “usher in a new era of humanity.” To silence Raolin after sex, Aspera has him accused of rape and locked up to await execution. Five years later, a boy named Sonder has been living in a rural cottage with a woman named Merna. The queen’s best swordsman, Merrick, comes to collect the boy to live in the palace as a page. Merrick is one of four dangerous individuals, including Aki, Drisil, and Randal, who had been wanted criminals prior to Aspera’s rule. They currently serve her in various capacities; e.g., Randal is the Overseer of Magic, a position necessary now that the wars with the mages’ college are over and magic is outlawed. Meanwhile, the palace offers a drab existence to the inquisitive Sonder until he attends his etiquette lessons with Master Fallen. He’s taught alongside Rhianwyn, a girl his age who’s training to be a healer. As the children grow, will their bond survive what Aspera plans for them?

Piper’s New Adult novel uses elements familiar to genre fans as the backdrop for a tale of intimacy, loyalty, and emotional conflict. Sonder and Rhianwyn’s relationship shapes the core of the narrative, with the adult characters providing palace intrigue. Randal, for example, is Aspera’s “right-hand” but has little chance, according to the sorceress Drisil, of becoming king. As their loneliness draws them together, “Her kisses still tasted sweet through the shame.” Early on, when Sonder tries to acknowledge Merrick as a father figure with a hug, the man slaps the boy to stifle the affection that will have no hope of flourishing in the palace. Eventually, the soldier admits, “The drinking and the killing are the only two things that make me feel in control.” When Sonder and Rhianwyn kiss as children, they mimic adults they’ve spied upon in the garden. Once Sonder reaches adolescence, however, he’s indoctrinated by Merrick as a killer of rebels for Aspera. Piper’s direct prose and psychological portrayal of her cast can be chilling; for example, Sonder is too numb to recoil when his “blade cut through [a] boy’s neck too easily.” The emotional stakes in the final third depict Sonder and Rhianwyn’s drifting apart; a threat to her reignites their potential. In this kingdom-at-risk tale, Piper focuses on the teens’ survival, which feels fresh. Events end on a forbidding note and hint at grander conflict to come.

This unique debut successfully blends New Adult drama with epic fantasy.