UNKNOWN

The queen is dead. Her kingdom is not done paying.

Farahnaz Rahnema, Hand of the Mashya, stands before a parliament that would rather argue about devastated fields than admit what its queen actually did. The wasting sickness was never a sickness. Behnaz à Radan fed on her own Talented to fuel her ambition, and half the court already knew. Farah is the only one willing to say it out loud. The Mashya stands with her. So does Siavash à Ardashir, a newer voice in parliament who is pressing her to decide what Emari becomes instead of only mending what Behnaz broke. Yasher does not love this development.

When a town on the southern cliffs goes silent, and a family escapes with a story about shadows climbing the rocks at night, The Mashya sends Farah and Yasher south to find out what has taken Sakasan, and what is still inside it.

The man whose Luck has carried him through every fight of his life can feel it failing. The child who once steadied them both is sketching shadows no one alive can decode. An old Emari woman who calls Yasher saqalu is teaching him things he is not ready to learn. And the Darkness that hollowed out Behnaz is not done with Emari, with Yasher, or with the Hand who is trying to hold what is left of them all.

The Veil of Takhsha is the second book in The Emari Chronicles, a Persian-inspired epic fantasy series of faith, power, and the brutal cost of becoming who you choose to be. For readers of The Jasmine Throne, The Stardust Thief, and The City of Brass.