Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross

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Description:

After eight years apart, Evadne can’t wait to see her older sister, Halcyon. But, when Halcyon returns from the queen’s army a day early, Eva knows something is terribly wrong. Halcyon is on the run and being chased by her commander after being charged with murder.

Though Halcyon’s life is spared, her punishment is heavy— five years hard labor, five years imprisonment, and five years serving the house she has wronged. Suspicious of the circumstances, Eva volunteers to take part of Halcyon’s sentence. She’s sent to serve in the commander’s house, where she meets Damon, a handsome and intriguing mage. Eva must work with Damon on a potentially deadly mission to retrieve a powerful relic that could save the kingdom—and clear her sister’s name. But as the sisters continue to serve each of their sentences, they quickly learn that there are fates worse than death.

Age Recommendation: 15+ or 9th grade and up

General Content:

Language: 0/10- Little to no derogatory terms or offensive language.

Alcohol & Drugs: 2/10- Families often drink ale/wine together. No drunkenness. Some characters are poisoned.

Violence & Gore: 6/10- A considerable amount of violence and some gore. A classic good vs. evil. One instance of public punishment.

Sexual Content: 2/10- Very little sexual content. Two characters share a passionate kiss.

Parent Guide:

Tropes: Family bonds, forgiveness and redemption, sacrifice, and magical quests.

-This novel's plot contains 9 fictional deities, each having a powerful relic that they've left on Earth. This is how they are described in ch. 1.

“There were nine divines. Well, eight now, since Kirkos was no longer considered a deity with his fall. Magda, mother goddess of the sun; Irix, father god of the sky; and their seven divine offspring: Ari, goddess of the moon and dreams; Nikomides, god of war; Acantha, goddess of fate and knowledge; Euthymius, god of earth and beasts; Loris, goddess of water and sea; Pyrrhus, god of fire; and Kirkos, god of the wind. Centuries ago, when the kingdom of Corisande had just begun, the nine gods and goddesses came down to live among the mortals. They ate mortals’ food, drank their wine, and slept in their beds. And so their magic had trickled into mortal blood, and magical children had been born.”

Ch. 1

-Evadne (Eva) and her cousin think about relic hunters, stating that, “Relic hunters often kill to get what they want.”

Ch. 3

-Eva’s sister, Halcyon, drinks ale from a flask.

Ch. 4

-Eva looks up to a mountain, hoping her sister didn’t retreat to it. Mount Euthymius is said to be “where fears manifested and had the power to roam the land as phantoms, where the door to the underworld could be found in the mountains' vast heart”.

-Eva notices that the commander's (Straton) hand was huge, “one that could effortlessly squeeze life from a throat”.

-Straton tells Eva they are after her sister because she has committed murder.

Ch. 5

-Halcyon remembers dreaming of Xander, the boy she accidentally killed. She often dreamed of him with “blood cascading down his body, reaching for her, haunting her nearly every time she closed her eyes”.

-Desperate and hungry, Halcyon steals some resources from a nearby town. She gets caught and punches her captor in the nose.

-Halcyon wakes tied to the “thief’s stave,” a “public place of shame” in which a thief is “knotted to the wood and would wait in shame for another to come and pay their debt”.

-Her captor mocks her by asking if she’s thirsty and then pouring water on the floor in front of her.

Ch. 6

-Halcyon recounts her accidental murder of Xander to the commander. They had been dueling blindfolded when Halcyon accidentally dealt a mortal blow to the neck.  Xander bled out, terrified, and Halcyon ran away.

-Halcyon receives a punishment of 20 lashes for killing her fellow soldier.

SPOILERS

-The commander unsheathed his sword. Halcyon thought he’d done so in order to execute her, only to realize he had cut away what was binding her to the thief's stave.

Ch. 7

-While Eva and her family are sitting at their fire for the night, they encounter a mage and his crew. Afraid of his magic, Eva's parents pull their daggers and hold tight to each other.

SPOILERS

-The mage sings the “song of sustenance” over the family, singing is how their magic is fulfilled, and then leaves laughing. The next morning, the family awakens to realize that all of their provisions and money are gone, stolen by the mage.

-It is revealed that Xander, the boy Halcyon murdered, is Commander Straton’s son.

Ch. 8

-When Halcyon arrives at court, “Evadne saw that Halcyon’s hair was gone; they had shaven her, and only a shadow of her dark hair remained on her scalp. The sackcloth she wore was smudged in grime and speckled in old blood, and her feet were bare, dirty.”

-Halcyon is sentenced to 5 years in the quarry, 5 years in prison, and 5 years serving the house of the commander. Eva asks to take half of her sentence, but it is decided that she may only take the 5 years of service to the commander's family.

Ch. 11

-Straton and his family pitch tents near the bottom of Mt. Euthymius. Eva mentions she’s worried about camping there because of Ivina, a once mortal woman “granted eternal life by Euthymius centuries ago. Ivina is said to guard the mountain by spinning “travelers’ fears into phantoms, tormenting those who come too close to the mountain.

-Phantom dogs appear to attack Eva while she’s outside of Stanton’s camp. The commander saves her, hurling flaming spears at the phantoms.

-Eva gets a new job serving wine to Straton's family. She will not only serve but has also become the family tester, tasting each wine for poison before the family.

Ch. 13

-The mage who stole from their family, Marcarius, meets Halcyon in prison. He mocks her by talking about her sister, stating, “she might have been pretty, had she been raised in the upper class”.

-The mage insists that Halcyon call him Lord, as he rules the prison. To intimidate her, he creates a creature of fire capable of melting skin. She reluctantly concedes to avoid being burned.

Ch. 15

-On Halcyon's second day in the quarry, 3 convicts came to greet her. She states that “their eyes were hungry, their grins bent with suggestions that” made her heart beat cold.

-Halcyon thinks about her disgust toward the three men, comparing the quarry to her legion. She mentions that she always felt safe in the legion because the commander considered both rape and sexual misconduct as intolerable and unforgivable, meeting both with harsh punishments.

-The men at the quarry continued to harass/mock Halcyon; she thinks of how she would like to kill them.

-In the quarry, the prisoners do physical labor with pick axes, chisels, and saws. Halcyon is amazed that murderers are trusted with these tools. Thales, an ally she found in the quarry, explains that harming/murdering a fellow prisoner is punished by removing a body part of the assailant, alongside a life sentence.

Ch. 16

SPOILERS

-Halcyon suggests that Selene, Starton's sister, is Marcarius’ mistress, that he’s doing her dirty work. Marcarius strikes her.

-Marcarius uses his magic against her will to search her memories. She presses the wounds on her back against the chair hard enough to cause her to pass out before he can get the information he’s searching for.

Ch. 17

-Eva and Damon, Straton's other son, get caught in a crowd. They get pushed closer together “until the space between them melted, and his chest was aligned with her back. The solid warmth of him was a shock to her. Evadne was suddenly aware of everything: the difference of their heights, the way their bodies curved to fit each other”.

-Damon and Straton get into an argument about Damon choosing Eva as his scribe without his permission, stating that she is the wrong choice to carry out their secret mission.

SPOILERS

-Damon tells Eva that he suspects his aunt is controlling the queen with powerful spells. In order to break the spell, they must find Acantha’s relic, the all-seeing crown, which hangs on the door to the underworld.

Ch. 18

-Halcyon tells Thales she believes she's being poisoned.

SPOILERS

-The guards force Halcyon to eat her poisoned meal, she spits it on them, and then forces herself to throw up the rest when they leave. The guards do this for 2 more days. Eventually, she is weakened and coughing up blood.

-Halcyon gets so ill from the poison, she believes she will die.

-Marcarius reports to Selene that he has killed Bacchus, the priest who helped Halcyon in ch.5.

-Selene tries to talk Halcyon into switching sides, joining forces with her and Marcarius. She holds true, remaining on the side of good.

Ch. 19

-Macarius meets Eva in a shop. She takes notice that his “gaze lingered a beat too long on her wet raiment, where the linen clung to her skin”.

Ch. 20

SPOILERS

-Halcyon lies on her cot, poisoned and weak; she is so sick that she hopes to die.

-The commander goes to the quarry to check on Halcyon at Eva’s request. She is bloodied, weak, and reeks of vomit. He held her and brought her to his wife, a healer.

Ch. 21

-Damon and Eva both fall asleep in his room as they are, late into the night, practicing a song. Eva is at her desk and Damon at his chair.

SPOILERS

-Lyra, Straton’s daughter, is tasked with helping Halcyon recover. However, when she gets to the quarry, Halcyon is not in her cell. Instead, there is only a bloodied blade on the floor.

Ch. 22

-Damon and Eva set off for their mission; in order to stay unnoticed, they cannot make fire. The night is frigid, so they decide to share a blanket, falling asleep back to back. They wake up cuddled and quickly “untangle themselves from each other and their blankets, as if nothing had happened”.

Ch. 23

-At the bottom of the waterfall, there are many scattered bones.

SPOILERS

-Eva and Damon fall from a waterfall, and she uses her relic to slow their fall. Exhausted, she falls onto his lap.

-Eva and Damon complete their mission. Eva’s shoulder is bruised and potentially dislocated. Damon feels her collarbone to test it. As they’re talking, Macarius appears with Halcyon in tow, blade to her throat.

Ch. 24

SPOILERS

-Macarius threatens to “slit her sister’s throat”.

-Macarius uses a spell to strike Eva; she falls facedown onto the ground.

Ch. 26

-Phantoms are sent again to Eva and Halcyon. Halcyon sees them as her friends and struggles to defeat them. After they are defeated, Halcyon thinks, “I am a murderer. I am guilty. I am unforgiven”, struggling to see herself as good.

Ch. 27

SPOILERS

-Halcyon gets pushed off a steep ledge by a phantom. Eva assumes she is dead and grieves the rest of the night. In the morning, she climbs down to find Hal’s body, expecting to find bloody remains.

Ch. 32

SPOILERS

-Damon and Eva share a moment before going to battle, in which they share a passionate kiss. “Time did not exist for them anymore…They were entangled with each other, edging across the floor breath by breath, and his hands were in her hair and his mouth was on her neck and Evadne was warm and vibrant from the splendor they had sparked.”

Ch. 33

SPOILERS

-The commander attempts to talk to Macarius, to give him a choice of peace before the two sides battle. Macarius does not yield, thus bringing the battle to a start. Halcyon kills a soldier on the other side. This is how it plays out: “There was a clash, a blow of resistance as the two sides finally met. She plunged her spear into the neck of a common convict just before he could swing his pick into her. She watched the blood gurgle from his mouth, his eyes bulge”.

-“She speared him in the stomach. Again and again, just above the Golden Belt. Laneus screamed and crumpled to the ground. She stood above him and watched him begin to bleed out”.

-Halcyon defeats Macarius and takes his enchanted sword:“She looked down at Macarius, who was whimpering. “Please . . . please don’t kill me.” He held up his quivering hands. Halcyon waited, watched his groveling. “Have mercy, Halcyon. Mercy.” Once, long ago, Halcyon would have granted mercy. But she was no longer that girl. And she plunged the Devouring Sword into his throat”.

-Straton is poisoned by one of Macarius’ enchantments.

Ch. 34

SPOILERS

-In his desperate fight against Selene, Damon uses up all of his magic, causing his hand to break, the ring on his finger to melt, and his magic to vanish. He coughs up blood and loses parts of his memory.

Ch. 35

SPOILERS

-Selene fakes kindness and draws Eva closer; she then stabs her twice. Eva remembers that her sister's blade is still hidden in her clothes; she wields it, stabbing Selene in the throat.

Ch. 36

SPOILERS

-Straton gives up the enchanted ring of healing in order to save Evadne. The poison sets back in. Halcyon “saw the sheen of death in his eyes. The color of life was leaving him, breath by breath. And Halcyon wanted to rage and weep; she did not want him to leave her. She had never been one to pray much, but how tempted she was now to beseech the divines. To heal Straton, to let him live.”

Ch. 38

SPOILERS

-Eva and Damon kiss.

What I love:

-Damon and Evadne sing spells/enchantments in the “God tongue” in order to complete their mission, defeat their enemies, keep them safe, and bring justice to their land. There is also a clear good and evil that unravels throughout the novel.

-The parent-child relationship and sibling relationship are healthy and honoring in this novel, which I feel is hard to find in YA novels.

-Damon’s and Evadne's enchantments often take the form of light; he literally fights evil/darkness with light. “And this enchantment was no longer mere words on a scroll, words she had scribed. This was a fragment of her, and it rose from her mouth like an offering, something so pure that it could not be overcome.”

-Rebecca Ross ends the acknowledgment of her book with “And to my Heavenly Father. I stand amazed. Soli Deo Gloria”.