The Nightward: Book One of the Waters of Lethe [Paperback]

Sturgeon, Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte awards finalist R.S.A. Garcias epic fantasy debut novelthe first in a duologyin which Caribbean mythology meetsThe Witcher, introduces a world where women warrior-magicians rule, and a child princess and her bodyguard must flee an attempted coup and evade the wave of dark magic sent to kill her.

For 500 years Gaieas Hand has stood as a ward against the Dark. The Age of Chaos is a faded memory. The Goddess has left Gailand and given her Blessing to the Queens to rule in her stead.

Princess Viella of the court of Hamber is the Spirit of Gaiea, presumptive heir to the throne and budding wielder of magic. And yet shes still a childnot yet ten years oldand a day spent evading her teachers and her dutiful bodyguard, Luka, is much more satisfying than learning about telepathy, illusions, and other spells, or obeying even her mother, the Queen.

There is time enough&until there isnt.

For the night the Queen hosts the Ceremony to confirm Viella as the next Hand of Gaiea, everything changes in a storm of political intrigue and betrayal: the assassination of Viellas mother.

Now Viella is Queen.

Luka, her reluctant royal bodyguard, does not hesitate despite resenting his position as royal babysitter. He rushes his charge from the Court and vows to keep her safe. Yet he is unsure how to help a burgeoning Hand of Gaiea, let alone contend with his place as a man in a matriarchal worldandthe secret that is burning inside him.

Together, they are on the run from darkness in a world where the lines between magic and technology are blurring and its up to a child and her protector to bring clarity and light back to the Queendom.

“Epic along every axis,The Nightwardis a complex tapestry of myth, loyalty, history, and power. I dare any author working in the fantasy space to create a land as rich and real, as inhabited with multilayered characters and deitiel£#