Hello everyone!
So two weeks back I did a blog post about a very intriguing retelling of the Persephone and Hades story from Greek Mythology.
And yes, I remember.
No, I haven't forgotten that I still have to do the second and third books in the trilogy.
I'll admit, I'm sometimes scatter-brained like that, but for this one time, I'm slightly too invested and too interested to be anything but totally sold on this, and I NEED to finish this.
I managed book two in about one day, more or less.
Sure, I technically took a break to sleep - because sadly, sleep is a must even when we don't want it to be - but I snarfed down the rest the moment I was done with my beauty regeneration and making sure the house would still be standing if I took a mini break from it.
Without further ado, let's stop with the chit-chat, shall we?
Instead, let's dive right into Cobweb Empire.
As with all my other serial blog posts, you'll be able to find links to the previous connected ones at the bottom of this one.
For a very quick recap, however, things go like this: back in Cobweb Bride, Death stops doing what he does best (aka making sure when people are dying they actually die), prompting everyone and their mother to send girls up north to his Shadow Keep in case one of them is his Cobweb Bride. Among them is young Percy, a nickname for her full nomenclature of Persephone, who actually succeeds not only in getting to Death's Keep, but overcomes the dreaded Black Knight, Lord Beltain Chidair, and drags him along. Once there, however, it's revealed that the bride is not among the volunteers, but Percy now has a gift from Death himself to find her.
And meanwhile, we have a crazy duke (Beltain's dad, natch) who wants to keep death suspensed so he can plunder and ravage and etc, Her Imperial Highness Claere, the Infanta, also dead (or undead) who's tagging along with her murderer Vlau, and the Domain down south wants to overrun the Realm.
This is where we're at when we begin Cobweb Empire.
As with any second book in a trilogy, this is where the story divides into several branches, but luckily for us, Vera Nazarian takes pity on her readers and doesn't pull a GRRM, instead allowing us massive chunks of time with each plot line before we move along to the next. This is a blessing with a story that's beginning to reach untold complications.
So why don't we start with a place we only heard about in book one, but now get to see properly for the first time?
The Sapphire Court, home to the Sovereign who, for some reason as yet unknown to us, wants the Realm anihilated under her dainty foot, is revealed to be the source for the book's title. Because, while the Sovereign placates a couple of her nobles worrying for their daughter, supposedly a Lady-in-Attendance upon the Sovereign herself, she then descends underneath her throne (namely shaped from a single sapphire, while we're at it) to reveal a chamber full of women in the state of undead, including the daughter of the couple from before, and ... the Cobweb Bride!
On a slab directly underneath the throne, with eyes as blue as the Sovereign's (remember this deet), she's covered in cobwebs and suspended in some sort of state no one has any clue about.
And meanwhile, the Sovereign learns of Percy and her unique powers, and sends none other but Vlau's older brother (whom Vlau conveniently thinks is dead but the guy is actually spying in the Domain) after her, while she herself gathers her army of Trovadii, her elite fighters, has them kill themselves so they become undead, and then marches north towards the Realm.
Yeah. We gone done for.
MEANWHILE.
The crazy Blue Duke, you know, the undead dad of our Beltain, is told he needs to go and beseige Letheburg (in rough translation I'd say this name means 'City of Lethe'), but then has to wait for the Sovereign to arrive. Alright, kewl, says the Duke, and does what he's told to do, which is better than raving about his back-stabbing son, who is NO SON OF HIS THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Because what man wouldn't want to stay undead forever, right?!
In Letheburg proper, however, is where our story actually picks up, with Percy, Beltain and the rest. They did make a stop in Percy's village, so that she could bestow the gift of actual death onto her grandmother (and a pig), but after that it was back on the road again because, not only do they have to return Betsy and the cart to Grial, the witchy woman who sent them on the initial quest to begin with, but they kind of have to follow the pull Percy feels towards the Cobweb Bride.
And she ain't anywhere near the north, let me tell you. Girl knows to repose in style, down south.
However, even during their journey, they realize that the landscape is sort of ... becoming kind of weird. Like, there was supposed to be a massive forest on the road to Letheburg. Did it pull a Treebeard Huorn gathering andm arch off to Isengard or something?
In any event, it isn't where it's supposed to be, and even in Letheburg, they're told whole sections of the city are disappearing.
OH and before they reach the city, two minor things: Claere asks Percy for the final death, much to Vlau's dismay, and Percy single-handedly sends a few undead soldiers away to oblivion when their camp is attacked. As you do.
Grial takes the entourage to the palace of Letheburg where Percy allows the old Queen to pass mercifully beyond the circles of the world, but in doing so, this one act of kindness might be their undoing - because, even as the Blue Duke begins his siege of Letheburg, the new King decides to keep both the Infanta and Percy within his walls, for their own safety, of course.
Nothing remotely to do with the fact that Percy can send the undead on. Nope.
Beltain and Claere hatch a desperate plan, snatching Percy away during the night and sending her south with only Beltain for company (and his horse, Jack, bona fide Frenchman Jacques who's apparently annoyed everyone keeps calling him Jack; this might be the funniest thing in the entire book). And while I'm jumping up and down for sheer joy because, hello, romance, they're in a bit of a hurry.
And once again, even as Beltain defends her, Percy takes out hundreds of the undead soldiers, which is definitely more than in the beginning with just three. Her power seems to be growing - almost at the same rate as Beltain's love for her.
As they travel and figure out that, oh boy, not only can Percy feel the undead, and the Cobweb Bride specifically, the countryside IS disappearing ... a journey which should have taken them a heck of a long time only takes them one ride across the country.
They pair up with one of Beltain's friends, a bona fide Duke, who not only gets them past the guards and later past another defeated king, but he's there to witness how the country is now upside down - actually, the WORLD seems to be upside down.
And the Sovereign is on her way north.
They actually pass one another on the road, the Sovereign's power pitted against Percy's, but then she and Beltain are past, and they ride into the Domain to continue on their quest for the Bride.
Managing to declare their love for each other (after stolen kisses in the night and some very desperate should-we-should-we-not), they run into who else but the terrified couple whose daughter Leonore is missing. And not only that, but they meet at the temple fo the old Goddess of Tradition, and the couple explains that a city, once the Domain's capital, is now sort of ... there and not there. It's suspended somewhere in between, and no one can enter or leave it.
Which is another reason for them to help Beltain and Percy get into the court room with the throne, where Percy figures out how to enter the subterrain chamber, where they find everyone they've been searching for.
With the power of Death, Percy frees the Cobweb Empire, the couple take Leonore and hightail it out of there, and she and Beltain take Lady Melinoë, the Bride, away with them. And as the realm is sort of disappearing into what seem to be shadows, Percy asks Beltain to trust her and ride directly in ...
... which lands them back in Death's Shadow Keep.
Huzzah!
They finally deliver the Bride, the Sovereign's own daughter, and run into some old friends from their original trek north, along with Lady Amarylis and Lord Nathan, who were originally caught by the Blue Duke, but they escaped using a river down below the northern keep which only actually exists during the twilight shadowy hours (which makes for fun sailing with one lantern!), and were then forced to wait things out with Death.
And now ... dun dun dun!
Time for Death to claim his bride!
Except ... nothing happens.
WHAT?
Something seems to be wrong with the bride and her death-shadow, and eventually Percy suggests that she should drink from the river Lethe - one sip is to forget, one is to remember everything, and the third is to die. So if she takes two sips, she should remember it all.
And so she does.
But after just one sip, her aura changes, becomes stronger ... and she's revealed not as the Cobweb Bride, but as Demeter, Goddess of Tradition!
Say WHAT NOW?
On that cliffhanger, Nazarian leaves us with our mouths wide open, the world falling apart, and Demeter standing there all la-di-da, let's rejoice! I'm back!
Me, I'm still reeling from the entire episode. Because, the gods are apparently now coming back into play, and if you remember, Demeter and the Sovereign have the same colour eyes ... making them related.
I have such a terrible suspicion about what's going to happen in the third book. Especially because the name Melinoë also rings a bell somewhere.
I'll leave the suspicions and guesses for later, however. It's a little too scary to imagine before I start reading the third book. But if you feel like going through the suspense, adventure, the slice of romance (here's looking at you, Beltain), you NEED to pick up these books. As a side note for your good health, however, I suggest you pick them up all together.
I'm not sure how you'll manage to wait otherwise!
xx
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