ABOUT THE SERIES

A trader of secrets. A dragon god. The war for a dying world.

Airene the Finch, a scrappy peddler of rumors, was not born with magic nor destined for greatness. Every opportunity she has earned for herself.

When her king mysteriously dies and her brother goes missing, a twist of fate intervenes. She sets on the path to become a warden, a wielder of sorcery, and one who will determine the future of the Four Realms.

But every secret has a cost, and defying a god will require a greater sacrifice than Airene may be able to pay.

THE WORLD

Telae is a world of two halves, spirit and material, which have long teetered in uneasy balance. That equilibrium is now coming to an end. With much of the physical world devastated by unnatural disasters, the Four Realms remain the last corner of civilization.

Yet even these nations are crumbling. Oedija, the Pearl of the Four Realms, is a city clinging to its legacy of equality and prosperity. But with famine and war on the horizon, and with a history of oppressing the sorcerers known as wardens, civil unrest threatens to upset the long peace.

Even greater threats loom from the spirit realm, the Pyrthae. The gods have long been absent, yet some have not fallen fully dormant. Should any return, it may prove the final blow to a fragile world.

THE PROTAGONIST

AIRENE THE FINCH

Airene has long had one aim: to uncover secrets and the truths they hold, no matter the cost. From a young age, she collected rumors like a magpie would baubles, always with the intention of using them for good. 

But though her intentions were noble, life forced her into compromise. Instead of unveiling corruption at the heart of her city, she has been reduced to exposing pettier crimes and scraping a living. She is a Finch, though she wishes to be a Verifier of Truth. 

But her dream never died. Long has Airene looked for the chance to prove herself, to hunt down the secrets that will change the world. Even if the truth will destroy it.

ECHOES OF CHAOS

BOOK 2

Every war has its sacrifice.

Oedija is breaking.

The Conclave, center of its government, lies in ruins.

The Manifest, the rebel movement of dangerous rogue sorcerers, extend their reach into the heart of the city.

And an ancient enemy, long believed to be myth, has reawakened at last.

Airene the Finch is one of the few who knows the truth. Amid the rising anarchy, she seeks the secret to defeating the rising daemon god.

But magic blossoms within her, erratic and deadly. Threats and treachery lurk in the shadows. Armies march toward Oedija's walls.

And the sacrifices Airene must make come with terrible consequences...

The story of political intrigue, mystery, and magic that began with Whispers of Ruin continues in Echoes of Chaos, Book 2 of The Famine Cycle.

REQUIEM OF SILENCE

BOOK 3

Every world has its end.

The armies of the Avvad, the most powerful empire in the world, have arrived at the walls of Oedija. Despot Jaxas has rallied the city’s meager defenses, but with the Manifest and Underguild still lashing in their death throes, the realm is barely holding strong.

Even facing the destruction of her home, Airene keeps watch for a different threat. Famine, the God of Hunger, has finally broken free of his cage and feasts upon the world. Unfettered, he will consume all life on its surface.

When an unexpected ally appears, Airene and her companions embark on a quest to find a way to stop the daemon god. Racing against time, seeking to stay ahead of both Avvad and Famine, they seek allies and weapons receded into myth.

But no war is won without great sacrifice — and if she is to succeed, Airene must sacrifice all she is…

The enthralling epic fantasy trilogy comes to an end in Requiem of Silence, Book 3 of The Famine Cycle.

SECRET SELLER

PREQUEL NOVELLA

A nobleman is murdered. A new power is stirring in the city. The hunt for the truth begins…

Airene is a merchant of rumors and seller of secrets, profiting off of others’ misfortunes and misdealings. When a noble falls dead under unusual circumstances and leaves her friend in a compromising position, she and her companions must investigate who’s behind it. But nothing is as it seems. And to survive, Airene must become someone she never thought she could…

A tale of secrets, magic, and mystery, Secret Seller is the intriguing prequel novella to the epic fantasy trilogy The Famine Cycle. If you like the roguish characters of The Lies of Locke Lamora, the complexity of Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice, and the magic of Mistborn, you’ll love this new fantastical world!

EXCERPT FROM WHISPERS OF RUIN

PROLOGUE

I was not born a warden.

For much of my childhood, I showed little sign of the arcane. I didn't even show promise of rising above my station. The daughter of an indebted carpet merchant and an ailing shipwright, I was fortunate merely to attend the public scholarium and learn my letters. That I received high marks was of little import.

In Oedija, the Pearl of the Four Realms, social hierarchy was rigid. No man or woman became something that their parents were not.

Yet my nature rebelled, as did my brothers'. I made nothing of our similarities for much of my life. Our mother had passed on her stubbornness to us; it was inevitable that we should try to throw off her hypocritical yoke.

Now, I know this to be no coincidence. It was our fates. But I did not understand that then. The fire that filled me seemed all my own. 

The passion that has consumed me flourished one day while passing through the markets. My ears caught a fragment of conversation, a hint of gossip, but of a kind that held dark depths. At five, I didn't understand what it meant for one patrician to sleep with another out of wedlock, as the washerwoman I eavesdropped upon had confided to another. Yet when I told my father of this, his eyes widened, and he bade me to not repeat it where I could be overheard. Punishment could be doled out for slander, he said. And because I loved him, I complied.

But in his reaction, I understood something I had not known before. Secrets held power, a power others feared. Young and powerless, I yearned to claim it.

So began what would become my life's calling. By the time I was eight, I'd sought more dangerous tales than salacious scandals, opting instead for street-side scams and moneylender muggings. I would return home after long, dusty days and illustrate my hard-earned stories in colorful detail to my brothers for their amusement.

By the time I was twelve, I'd sold my first secret.

At fifteen, when adolescents settle on their occupation, I named myself a Finch after the Order of Verifiers, a long-disbanded branch of the government, to carry on their mission of exposing truth wherever deception obscured it. When I set to the work a year later, I found myself more often chasing profit than justice. But always, I told myself it was in the eventual pursuit of that noble goal.

But my calling had its limits. When I sought to uncover the secret most important to me and failed, my belief in my purpose faltered. I had honed my skills and developed my network, and for what?

What did any of this matter if I could not even find my eldest brother's murderer?

I was eleven when they found his body in a canal. His face was nothing like I remembered, bloated with death and prolonged exposure to saltwater. Yet it was the scars, thin and violet, that spiderwebbed from his eyes that haunted my memories most. They tantalized with the secrets they held. Even as young as I was, I sensed if I could understand their origin, I would know how my brother died.

A decade later, I received a hint more of the mystery. Yet in the end, answers eluded my grasp. The trail ran dry, the clues turned up cold. Not for all my prowess as a Finch could I track down the killer.

Despair, however, is tempering flame. It was from this failure that my calling truly began to find its purpose. That I became discontented with blackmailing scoundrels and exposing ignominy, and I searched for a higher purpose.

I was not born a warden. I had no touch of magic. But when the three horns of the Laurel Palace sounded their mournful voices over Oedija, I set down the path to become one.

A warden who would reshape the face of the Four Realms.

A warden who, Eidola willing, would cage a god.

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