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rosa_heartlilyThis time last year I was learning about how to recognise antisemitism, chatting with a friend, trying to find reasons for hope (even MORE important this year!), doing work stuff, and watching Traitors: Australia.
I had another bad night, so I tried working some stuff out in my head while I dozed rather than trying to write anything this morning. Here are the extended summaries for each book in the Keys to the Kingdom series.
Book 1 - For Love and Glory
Kirana embraces a life of danger and adventure as she travels with Jerrick to claim his throne. She grew up training in survival skills, archery and hand-to-hand combat with her ‘brothers’. Her ‘aunt’ also taught her some simple healing skills, particularly around herbs. The village feels too confining to her spirit and she is quite disdainful of her ‘father’. When Jerrick reveals his ‘true’ heritage, she is more than willing to accompany him. As they leave the village under cover of night, Seemu appears and insists on joining them.
They are cousins and childhood sweethearts, and there is no doubt in her mind when he asks her to accompany him to claim his kingdom. Once he is established as king, he will make her his queen. Her mind is so full of the joys to come that she is willing to endure any privations during the journey. Even when they meet other women, she explains away his gallantry as the natural attitude of a king. Seemu, on the other hand, grows more suspicious of Jerrick’s intentions and tries speaking to both of them but is dismissed by both.
In the course of their journey, they join a caravan whose leader explains they have a series of pick-up points to reach; the travellers can earn food by providing them with security. Given their combined skills, this seems like a natural fit and they are all happy with the arrangement for the first few weeks. There are women in the group who are mostly the wives, and unpaid servants, of the men and are all a little in awe of Kirana. She has always been rather uncomfortable in the company of other women and is happy to keep away, but there comes a moment when she needs their help.
It becomes apparent that they are really thieves. The men take longer than usual to ‘collect’ the goods and when they do appear they are running. When the party gets clear of the pick-up point, they explain there was some difficulty with the paperwork, which Jerrick and Kirana accept, but Seemu is suspicious. He brings his doubts to Jerrick and Kirana who are aghast at the very idea. Kirana insists on providing ‘extra’ security at the next pick-up and realises Seemu is correct. She presents her findings to the others.
Jerrick sees remaining in their company as a necessary evil, but Kirana refuses to continue to help them. They are nearing the Temple, the final stop on the ‘merchants’’ route and the place they have been aiming for because Jerrick wants to consult the Oracle about the best approach to claiming his throne. He believes they have a better chance of reaching it with their current party who know the way. However, Kirana and Seemu refuse to be party to further theft, or to accept food that has not been honestly earned.
They have a row about it, and about his reluctance to marry her, and she storms off. Jerrick has assumed her dedication to him is unwavering and is shocked at her attitude. His answers to her challenges are ill thought through and stumbling as he tries to adjust to the new situation. The only thing he can clearly articulate is the sense, as he sees it, of staying with the group. Exasperated, Kirana leaves and is pleasantly surprised that Seemu joins her. He explains he only came in the first place to support her (he values his life too much to suggest he was protecting her!).
Back home, she throws herself into becoming the new village healer, a role she is very reluctant to give up when Nova and MC appear bearing a letter from Jerrick. The journey back is harder, so feels longer, because they are on foot and are finding their own way. However, they are able to find honest work, in some cases putting right the harm caused by their previous companions. Kirana joins her ‘aunt’s’ successor as apprentice and finds an unexpected talent for the work. One day she is treating her ‘mother’ for a fever who, in her delirium reveals the truth.Book 2 - The Seer's Escape
Nova leaves behind the confining life of the Temple to share her gift with the world. The Temple has been her whole world for as long as she can remember and leaving it is both thrilling and terrifying. Within its walls she is a small but important cog but who will she be outside?
She is a blind ‘Seer’ from a nomadic culture. Like all blind girls born to her people, she was given to the Temple as a small child. The Temple is the only fixed structure they use and has grown into a complex of buildings. Each clan stops at the complex occasionally to water at the oasis, buy and sell goods, and worship at the Temple. There is also a gathering of the clans every five years. Nova is also a ‘niner’ so has extra abilities, and has always been something of an outsider.
Jerrick visits her to hear his fortune. He has heard of the Temple Oracle as a fireside tale since he was very young. Arriving at its doors feels like entering a myth. He is still smarting from his argument with Kirana, and from being used by the thieves, so brings an energy of hurt to the consultation. Nova is the Oracle on duty that day. She is feeling confined by her life after a visit from her family. The smell of the desert hung about them, making her long for something other than the Temple.
She tells him he will gain what he seeks but he is not who he thinks he is. The words come from outside her, as they always do, but there is an added poignancy to the message she cannot identify. Jerrick leaves the chamber deep in thought, leaving Nova reeling from the experience. Everything in her screams, ‘Leave!’ but leaving the Temple is almost unheard of for an Oracle.
Intrigued by the clarity, yet contradiction, of the prophecy she decides to accompany him, offering to guide him through the desert that is her home. First, she meets with the Mother of the Temple, seeking her wisdom. The Mother can sense the pent-up excitement in Nova but is reluctant to send her out into the world with a stranger. As she prays to the Goddess, she is visited by Murdo who is her kinsman. He is travelling with Nova’s clan as he felt a call to the Temple. The Mother brings the three together (there is an inevitable scramble and tension as they almost miss each other!).
The journey teaches him patience and humility, and the importance of hospitality. Jerrick is impatient and greedy for all the things he believes belong to him. The desert is a place that will not be rushed. It is only possible to travel so far in a day due to the strength of the animals that carry them (lamecs again?). When they meet with clans there is a long ritual of hospitality to be observed that drives him almost mad at first, even whilst he is grateful for a place to sleep out of the wind and sand. Over time, he comes to value the enforced calm and gentleness of the desert people.
At the other side of the desert, they part company because she has to return to the Temple, but hands him to MC who is trying to find a way home. Nova feels she is being called back to the Temple, so she and Murdo prepare to return almost as soon as they arrive at the other oasis. At the same time, she is reluctant to leave Jerrick because they promised to guide him. They meet MC in the bazaar (Nova grabs her wrist as they pass each other in the crowd, startling them both) and she explains her predicament.
The answer lies in Jerrick’s kingdom. There are people there with ancient knowledge and books filled with even more. Nova and Jerrick feel sure the answer can be found there. MC and Captain (Emsy and Captin) provide Jerrick with protection as they join a merchant caravan heading for the kingdom.
Then we have...
Book 3 - The World Behind the Wall
MC discovers a magical world behind a blank wall in the house she is living in. Alone in a large empty house, she explores all its nooks and crannies, finding secret rooms, concealed passages, and even a small treasure trove. She documents everything and informs the house’s owners who allow her to keep the jewels (is it too obvious if one of them is the ring proving Kirana’s birthright?). During her explorations, she finds a door that appears to open onto a blank wall. When she leans on it, however, her hand passes right through. She steps through and finds herself in another world.
After living alone for her whole adult life, she fell in love with Jim, a man she met on holiday. Whilst she had had lovers, she had never met anyone with whom she felt so completely at ease. He laughed at the right jokes in the right way. They shared a taste for fantasy fiction with a lot of overlap in the books they had read but also had plenty of new books to share. After their holiday, an organised trip for single people that someone else had booked for MC, they met again and realised they had found ‘the one’.
They married a few months later and both took early retirement, planning to visit all the most exotic places they could think of. Both had good pensions and were drifting in their careers. Retirement gave them both a chance to reset their lives by allowing them to take on new challenges – he wanted to devote more time to [hobby], she wanted to try her hand at editing. They lived in his house at first but soon sold it and downsized to a three-bedroom bungalow, which they rented.
A year later, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. At first, they were both devastated, feeling all their dreams of a future together were destroyed. However, Jim’s natural optimism and good humour won through, and he showed MC there was still a lot for them to share.
They ticked off some of the places on their list, but when he passed, she couldn’t face going to the rest alone. Naturally reluctant to do anything requiring effort, with Jim gone she lost all her energy. After barely leaving the house for a couple of months, however, she realised she needed to do something.
She gave up her house and became a professional house-sitter. With each contract time-bound, it both freed her from having to make a decision about when to leave and forced her to find somewhere else to move to. There were no bills to pay or maintenance to worry about, but she had full use of the house and its facilities (where they existed). A year after Jim’s death, she has still not fully processed her grief, but it has lost its sharp edge.
In an old mansion, ear-marked for renovation as a luxury retirement home, she finds her way into the other world. She took the job because she thought Jim would have loved the house. There are extensive grounds and she spends as much time roaming around them as she does inside. She enjoys finding the ‘rules’ to her secret world and is dreading having to leave. On the ‘other side’, the portal is much more obvious.
She gets stuck there and hopes the wise people of Jerrick’s kingdom can help her get back. Captain, the cat that she shares the house with, gets gradually friendlier to the point where he begins to follow her everywhere. One day he follows her through the portal, and it disappears on the other side (or she gets stuck because she is wearing the ring…?). He is transformed into a young man. After panicking, they return to the city she has been exploring, where they meet Nova, Murdo and Jerrick.
They can but only when the true heir, Kirana, accepts the crown. It soon becomes apparent that Jerrick is not the true heir and he begins to suspect the truth. MC is still at the palace, and he asks her to bring Kirana to the city. She and Captain agree to travel back to the village to find Kirana and bring her back.Book 4 - Leaves on the Wind
The three women travel together to restore the world. They are held together by their relationships with Jerrick, a young man who travelled to a distant kingdom to claim a throne only to discover it wasn’t really his. However, he has shown a talent as a ruler, and the city elders value his leadership, whilst constrained by tradition. They send MC and Captain to seek Kirana. They travel to the Temple to find Nova and Murdo, and the four of them make their way to Kirana’s village to make their case.
After each has recounted her story, Kirana remains adamant that she doesn’t want to rule a kingdom and if Jerrick isn’t enjoying it that’s his problem. Despite her reluctance to take on her mother’s role as village healer, she has found she has a talent not only for the practical mixing of medicines but also the softer skills. She has a place in the world that fits her and has no desire for more.
The others show her not only how the kingdom needs her but also the world. The kingdom exists on tradition that demands only the True Heir occupies the throne. Although Jerrick is an effective leader, there is still unrest and other claimants are dusting off their family trees. None of them will pass the Test of Blood but that won’t stop them forcing the kingdom into civil war to try. But there is another reason.
MC’s ‘magic’ is draining their world of lifeforce and her presence is damaging the fabric of reality. The universe demands balance, which means MC and Captain returning to their own world, but there is a step that has to take place first – Kirana’s coronation. Reluctantly, Kirana admits that she has seen signs of this herself, with some herbs becoming almost impossible to find.
They return to the kingdom where Kirana is crowned and appoints Jerrick as regent and MC is able to return to our world. Eventually, she agrees to be crowned but leaves again after making Jerrick her regent and heir. She will return every five years and, in the meantime, he can make his political marriage and prepare to be the True King. Nova and Murdo return to her clan as a couple. MC and Captain pass through the portal, which closes behind them forever.
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