More shouts of alarm and sorrow rise from the crowd.
"Thrush was with them!" I hear Moon cry.
"And Kora and Darel," I say. This can't be happening.
"
Who
attacked you and took the children?" a man asks.
"I don't know. They wore strange clothes, and their hair was painted," Arika says. "They carried weapons. And they were all women."
From the confused sounds of the crowd, no one knows what to make of this description.
"How long ago was this? We must follow them," someone shouts.
"It won't do any good," a flat voice says. Kai. She doesn't say more.
"What is it, Kaiya? Tell us what you know," Nerang asks gently.
"These women . . . were they wearing feathers? Colorful feathers, like the one in Myall's hair?" Kai asks.
"The one Calli found," Peree whispers to me. "Kai was fascinated with it. She wanted to know where I got it."
I feel people turn to stare at us.
Kai doesn't say anything else at first, as if this is hard for her to speak about. "Those feathers are their mark."
"Whose mark?" someone asks.
"The women that took me away when I was a child. The ones I escaped from, before I became . . .
runa.
" Kai's voice is suffused with an emotion I haven't heard in it before: fear.
"The Fire Sisters."
If you enjoyed THE DEFIANCE, Book 2 in the Brilliant Darkness series, please support the author by posting a review on Amazon and
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THE SCOURGE, Book 1 in the Brilliant Darkness series, is available now from Amazon. THE FIRE SISTERS, Book 3 in the series, is coming in 2014.
More about THE FIRE SISTERS:
Fennel and Peree are finally where they’ve always wanted to be: together and safe from the Scourge in the protected village of Koolkuna. But on the day of their partnering ceremony the children of the village are stolen away, Fenn’s loyal companion, Kora, among them.
Still grieving over her own losses, Fenn is determined to bring the children home. Rival Kaiya is the only one who has a chance of finding them, thanks to her mysterious past, but in return for her cooperation, she wants the one thing Fenn isn’t willing to give up. Peree.
Forced to publicly distance themselves while privately clinging to their love, Fenn and Peree join a small search party led by Kai. She takes them away from the safe waters of Koolkuna and into the wilds where small pockets of humanity crouch, coping with the Scourge in ways both brutal and bizarre. But nothing in Fenn’s life so far has prepared her to face the group of women who clench the children’s lives in their ruthless fists—the Fire Sisters.
Thank you to …
Ryan, for twenty years of love and partnership. You make writing about strong, supportive men effortless.
Mom, Dad, and Ginger, for always being there for me.
Hilary, Jenny, and Kim, for your steady friendship and enthusiasm. You guys keep me sane. And Hilary, for gifting me the title.
Lindsey Alexander, for her solid editorial work.
Caryn Wiseman, my agent, for watching out for my interests.
Steve Lamar, without whom I’d have no online presence. Or at least not one I’m proud of.
Authors S.K. Falls, Katie French, and Kristi Helvig for your friendship above all, and for reading critically and helping me improve my work.
H.G. Wells, for his amazing story, The Country of the Blind, which Peree tells to Fenn. The story Wirrim offers is adapted from a Cherokee legend. Coyote's story, and that of the bird whose feather becomes a spear, are my own.
And my readers, for reading. Without you, there would be little point.
A.G. Henley is the author of the BRILLIANT DARKNESS series. The first book in the series, THE SCOURGE, was a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award.
A.G. is also a clinical psychologist, which means people either tell her their life stories on airplanes, or avoid her at parties when they've had too much to drink. Neither of which she minds. When she's not writing fiction or shrinking heads, she can be found herding her children and their scruffy dog, Guapo, to various activities while trying to remember whatever she's inevitably forgotten to tell her husband. She lives in Denver, Colorado. Learn more at aghenley.com