I happened to take a look at my Goodreads challenge recently and realized I was still 10 books away from my goal. Since there’s no way I’m going to reach that goal without audiobooks, I figured it was time for me to get back to this series. Also, I needed something to listen to while making Thanksgiving pies.
I realized I left out a crucial character in my review of A Queen in Hiding. Thalen is a university student whose home has been invaded by the Oros. His brother was killed and died in Thalen’s arms, prompting Thalen to gather some people and head into Oro country and attack them there. It’s a suicide mission that will hopefully result in the Oros retreating back to their own territory to deal with their threat at home, leaving Thalen’s countrymen alone.
Thalen has also figured out that the Oros are invading because their entire population is sick and/or starving because they have accidentally poisoned their own water supply with all their mining. The Oros don’t realize this is the case, and they’re not likely to let Thalen live long enough to explain it, so the fighting continues.
Meanwhile, rumors of the Raiders, as they have decided to call themselves, reach Cressa, who decides to join them, since they have a common enemy. She doesn’t tell them who she really is, but she does reveal that she can communicate with animals, which is super handy for reconnaissance.
By this time, she’s using the name “Skylark”, and she and Thalen start to fall for each other, but he doesn’t think it would be proper for the commander to have “relations” with a subordinate.
As their finishing their last mission, Skylark gets captured. Thalen and friends manage to rescue her, but as they do, a nearby volcano erupts, and it’s unclear to me whether one of the Oro’s magi was responsible for intentionally causing the volcano to erupt, or whether it was pure coincidence. Such is the risk that comes with listening to an audiobook rather than reading.
What is clear is that said magi could sense Skylark’s presence because of her power. The magi sent a firebolt to Skylark – even though she didn’t know where Skylark was, she told power to seek power, and sure enough, the bolt hit Skylark as her mount was jumping over a river. She screamed in pain and fell into the water right in front of Thalen, and that’s the last we see of her.
The last scene of the book takes place between a group of humans, each of whom represents a different god – one for each of the nine realms. Nagas is not happy about having her line of queens wiped out, and The Blacksmith admits to interfering. The others do not approve of the interference, but there is some debate about whether they should intervene to save Skylark’s life. They seem to be leaning towards the idea that it might be best for everyone if they let her die, but we know that can’t be the case because there are two more books in the series.