The Tainted Realm is the story of the remote island nation of Cythe, brutally colonised two thousand years ago by the Hightspallers, and of a realm forever tainted by the means they used to take the land. Cythe's history, art and culture were erased and its clever native people were reduced to despicable degradoes, on the verge of extinction when, without warning, they vanished.

For fifteen hundred years they have lived underground in Cython, served by their Pale slaves, the descendants of noble Hightspaller children once given as hostages to Cython but never ransomed. For all this time, the Cythonians' lives have been shaped by the alchymical books called the Solaces, sorcerously bestowed upon them by an unknown benefactor.

Now Hightspall is struggling under the weight of one natural disaster after another; its people feel that the very land is rising up against them. Then the last of the Solaces appears in Cython, the iron book called The Consolation of Vengeance, and the Cythonians know that it is time to take back their land.

Only one person can prevent Hightspall from running with blood - a Pale slave called Tali who has just come of age. But Tali's four female ancestors were killed in the same brutal way and she knows she's next to die. To survive, and gain the justice she so desperately craves, she must escape Cython, though no slave ever has.

And now the creator of the Solaces is hunting her.

 

1. Vengeance
2. Rebellion
3. Justice

 

November 2011, Australia (UK and US editions, April 2012)

http://www.orbitbooks.net/

The Tainted Realm

Book 1 - Vengeance

Twelve years ago, two children witnessed a murder that still haunts them as adults.

Tali, a slave girl in subterranean Cython, saw her mother's head hacked open and something taken from inside. Rix, boy heir to the biggest fortune in Hightspall, watched two shrouded figures do the deed. He did not realise they were his parents, acting for a faceless sorcerer.

Tali has sworn to bring her mother's murderers to justice, but now she is hunted by a killer who can only be beaten by magic - Tali's magic that she does not understand.

Her dramatic escape precipitates Cython's war on a weak and unready Hightspall. Tali meets Rix by chance and they flee through a land in turmoil, hunted by enemies and allies alike. But before they can solve the crime, and save the realm, Tali and Rix must learn to trust each other.

The rebellion is led by Lyf, the embittered wraith of a long-dead Cythonian king whose sorcery has brought Hightspall to its knees. To restore himself to life Lyf needs only one thing - the master pearl his magic has cultured inside Tali's head - and he is determined to take it.

As she unravels the conspiracy behind her mother's murder, Tali's quest for justice turns to a lust for vengeance. Unfortunately, only one person can teach her how to use her unruly magic - Lyf himself.

Read First Chapters

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Buy the audiobook on CD here (from November 28, 2011):
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