I bought this book by Sherwood Smith on impulse because the ebook was on sale on Amazon for $0.99 and Smart Bitches alerted me to the sale, so thanks for that. And when I say “thanks,” it’s with the same tone used by someone trying to lose weight when their enabler insists on giving them a donut.
This book is really good, but it’s also a lot. Not only is it long (just under 600 pages), but there’s a lot going on, and a lot of history and names and titles, many of which sound the same. By the time I finally had my bearings in this world Smith had built, the book was almost over. And as much as I appreciate the convenience of ebooks, I really should have read a physical copy of this book so I could refer to the map. As it was, I didn’t see a map included in the ebook, although there was a list of names and titles at the end.
Speaking of which, Inda is the son of a prince, but not a prince himself, nor is he a member of the royal family. In this world, there’s the king, and his sons are princes, but then there are also lords throughout the land who are called princes. They would probably be called Dukes or Earls in the English version of the aristocracy.
The king’s brother is expected to be the Royal Shield Arm, which basically means he’s in charge of the military. The oldest son of each prince is expected to attend a sort of military academy located in the capital city with the castle where the royal family lives. As adults, they’ll fight the king’s wars.
The second-oldest son is expected to stay home and guard the castle. The older boys are expected to train their younger brothers in everything they’ve learned at the academy so they can be fit soldiers to defend the castle. Apparently beatings are also pretty common at the military academy and most boys bring this home to their younger brothers as well. There’s only one brief comment later in this book about how messed up that is.
Women don’t attend the military academy, but are still expected to help defend the castles. It’s cool that they’re expected to fight, but not cool that they’re not given the same resources to do so. As is typical with women, they come up with their own fighting style and teach it to each other in secret, with strict orders against teaching any men their secret fighting style. It’s designed to be used against a larger opponent, and they’re afraid if men find out about their strategies, the women will lose the only advantage they have over their male opponents, which is the advantage of surprise.
Inda is the second son of a prince, so he’s not expected to go to the academy, but the year he turns 10 or 11 they changed the rules and now all the second sons are expected to attend the academy, including Inda. He’s excited to go, but his mom is immediately suspicious as to what this means. Inda’s fiancée warns him to watch and listen more than he speaks because she knows something’s up.
The academy is about as tough as any military training, and it’s not made any easier by the fact that a lot of the younger boys are getting pulled aside by their older brothers for a beating, just for good measure. It also doesn’t help that some of the boys have decided to make life difficult for Inda’s friend, who for the moment is only going by the name Sponge.
Sponge likes being anonymous, but they all figure out pretty quick that he’s the king’s second son. Turns out his older brother really, really dislikes him, so he’s told some of his cronies and their younger brothers to make life difficult for Sponge and his friends. The idea is to make all Sponge’s friends desert him so he’s left all alone, but that backfires. Not only do Inda and his other friends refuse to desert their new friend, but they even end up getting some of the bullies on their side.
Sponge’s older brother, the Sierlaef, hates him because he’s dyslexic and Sponge is a really good reader. Since dyslexia isn’t understood in this world, he gets berated for being stupid and asked why his younger brother has made so much more progress in this arena. The Sierlaef also has a stutter, so he speaks as little as possible, and then only one or two words at a time if he can.
While Sponge takes after his father in being quiet and studious, the Sierlaef takes after his uncle, the Sierndael, who is endlessly ambitious and thinks he’s a lot smarter than he is. He is determined to go to war so he can garner some loyalty, even when diplomacy would be a more effective way of getting what they want for their own kingdom. The king knows it’s a bad idea, but he goes along with it because he knows how important glory is for his brother and he knows his brother is more manageable when he gets what he wants.
Inda has the misfortune to get the Sierndael’s attention during one of the war games. One of the bullies insists on leading their unit and Inda doesn’t argue, but he has the best head for strategy, as well as everyone’s strong suits and how to leverage them to achieve their goal. The Sierndael sees this during the war game and realizes Inda is a threat.
The Sierndael convinces the Sierlaef to lure one of Inda’s friends into a trap. Since Inda is the unspoken leader, he’ll get the blame when things go wrong. Not only do things go wrong, but Inda’s friend ends up dead, which was never part of anyone’s plan. It’s a horrible accident, but Inda does get blamed and told he has to confess and accept a lashing as his punishment. Inda refuses to confess to doing something he didn’t do (he had spotted the trap and tried to stop his friend, but wasn’t fast enough.) Even when it’s explained to him that he has to confess or be exiled, he still refuses to confess.
His father believes him, but pressing his case would basically mean declaring war against the king, and that’s not going to happen. The king has to do something or the family of Inda’s dead friend will come after him.
They agree that Inda should be banished, but where he ends up is super, super secret. Not even the Sierndael knows where he ends up. Only the king and his most trusted man, Captain Sindan, knows where Inda ended up. The queen manages to find out, she tells Hadand, who is not only Inda’s sister, but is also engaged to the Sierlaef. She tells Sponge that Inda is alive on a ship somewhere.
Inda spends a few years working on a ship, literally learning the ropes. He’s supposed to keep his identity to himself, so he never talks about his past — partly to keep his identity secret and partly because it’s too painful to think about. Nevertheless, he does manage to make some friends on the ship.
But he keeps in fighting shape, and when someone else starts a mutiny on the ship and come after him, he takes them out with a few quick blows, and the secret that he really knows how to fight is officially out.
He and his friends are still forced to sell the ship and its cargo or let it get stolen by pirates.
The first-mate-turned-captain decides their best bet is to have Inda train them how to fight so they can hire themselves on other merchant ships as protection against pirates. That’s exactly what they do, and they get really good at it, but they eventually meet a fleet of pirates they can’t defeat. They all end up dead, except for Inda. The last we see of him, one of the pirates taking the ship he was hired to defend tells him in his native tongue to play dumb so he can stay alive. Inda recognizes the voice as someone he knew back home. Based on the name of the sequel, I’m guessing it’s someone who goes by “the Fox” due to his family crest including a fox in it. I can’t wait to hear his story, because not long before he ran into Inda, the Fox’s family got word that he had died at sea.
Meanwhile, back home, Sponge promised Inda justice, but is frustrated to find out that, even as second in line to the throne, he has no real power. But he seems to have gained a weapon without realizing it. He has earned the love and loyalty of his men, something his older brother has never managed. His men only follow him because he’s the next king. The Sierndael sees this and realizes it’s time to change his plans.
Meanwhile, the Sierlaef (see what I mean about these titles being confusingly similar?) has the hots for Inda’s brother’s fiancée, Joret. She’s only semi-interested in a physical relationship with the heir, and when she tries to explain that it’s not going to happen because she’s loyal to her fiancé, she inadvertently makes things worse. The Sierlaef decides the only way he can have her is if her fiancé dies, so he manages to make that happen.
Sponge happens upon the ambush just as it’s finishing up and he realizes what happened: that he was attacked by his own men who are dressed as bandits. He figures out it was his own brother who gave the order, but he can’t prove it, and making an accusation would be as good as declaring war, so he can’t do that either. He makes a promise to his friend’s dying brother to bring Inda home, even though he still hasn’t managed to fulfill his first promise of getting justice for Inda.
He writes a letter to Inda’s family sending his condolence for their loss in their oldest son and assuring them he fought bravely. He also manages to sneak in a few subtle words about what he suspects was the true cause of the ambush. Not enough to be outright accusatory, but enough that Inda’s mom can figure it out.
Inda’s parents declare Inda to be their heir, which means they need a way to track him down and bring him home, which of course will be easier said than done with the ships he’s on having a habit of disappearing.