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Title details for The Emperor's Knife by Mazarkis Williams - Available

The Emperor's Knife

Tower and Knife 2

#1 in series

by Mazarkis Williams
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
There is a cancer at the heart of the mighty Cerani Empire: a plague that marks each victim with a fragment of a greater design. Geometric patterns spread across the skin, until the victim dies in agony or becomes a Carrier, doing the bidding of an evil intelligence.
The lost prince Sarmin, the emperor's only surviving brother, lies locked in a hidden room. As the pattern draws closer to the palace he is at last remembered: now he awaits a bride, Mesema, a Windreader from the northern plains. She is accustomed to riding free across the grasslands and finds the Imperial Court stifling, but she soon realizes the politicking is not a game. It is in deadly earnest.
Eyul, the imperial assassin, is burdened by the atrocities he has committed. As commanded, he bears the emperor's Knife to the desert in search of a cure for the pattern-markings.
As long-planned conspiracies boil over into open violence, the enemy moves towards victory. Now only three people stand in his way: a lost prince, a world-weary killer, and a young girl from the steppes who saw a path in a pattern once, among the waving grasses.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Tower and Knife Trilogy

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 1, 2011

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781597803854

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781597803854
      • File size: 502 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 17, 2011
      Williams’s riveting and intense debut is driven as much by the emotional scars of a ruthless court as by the court’s intrigues. The Empire is haunted by a mysterious, incurable curse: soon after the strange markings of the Pattern appear on people’s bodies, they either die or become the murderous puppets of an unseen force. When heir-less Emperor Beyon becomes Patterned, his mother and the vizier plot to use his brother, Prince Sarmin, to their own ends. Sarmin, however, is embittered by a lifetime spent hidden in a luxurious prison—an emperor is allowed no surviving brothers—and joins forces with his fiancée, Mesema, a nomad chief’s daughter, to put an end to royal assassinations. Their plans are then derailed by the discovery of a person manipulating the horrifying Pattern, more dangerous than any coup. Compelling characterizations will keep fans of grim fantasy entirely enthralled.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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