We know author Kiersten White’s been busy writing, because we already have an excerpt for NOW I RISE, the sequel to And I Darken!
If you’ve read Kiersten White‘s And I Darken, you might be interested in reading the excerpt to the second book of The Conquerors Saga, Now I Rise! And we also have a list of the places Kiersten will be touring later this month with some other awesome authors!
But before you read the excerpt and check out the tour dates, you can see the awesome cover that was released earlier today, along with the book description (warning: spoilers for And I Darken).
About And I Rise (Book Two of The Conquerors Saga)
Lada Dracul has no allies. No throne. All she has is what she’s always had: herself. After failing to secure the Wallachian throne, Lada is out to punish anyone who dares to cross her blood-strewn path. Filled with a white-hot rage, she storms the countryside with her men, accompanied by her childhood friend Bogdan, terrorizing the land. But brute force isn’t getting Lada what she wants. And thinking of Mehmed brings little comfort to her thorny heart. There’s no time to wonder whether he still thinks about her, even loves her. She left him before he could leave her.
What Lada needs is her younger brother Radu’s subtlety and skill. But Mehmed has sent him to Constantinople—and it’s no diplomatic mission. Mehmed wants control of the city, and Radu has earned an unwanted place as a double-crossing spy behind enemy lines Radu longs for his sister’s fierce confidence—but for the first time in his life, he rejects her unexpected plea for help. Torn between loyalties to faith, to the Ottomans, and to Mehmed, he knows he owes Lada nothing. If she dies, he could never forgive himself—but if he fails in Constantinople, will Mehmed ever forgive him?
As nations fall around them, the Dracul siblings must decide: what will they sacrifice to fulfill their destinies? Empires will topple, thrones will be won . . . and souls will be lost.
Excerpt from Now I Rise by Kiersten White
It is easier to destroy than to build, her nurse had been fond of saying when Lada would pull all the blossoms off the fruit trees, but empty fields make hungry bellies.
As a child, Lada had never understood what her nurse meant. But now she thought she might. At least the part about destroying being easier than building. All her time spent writing letters or standing in front of minor nobles attempting to forge alliances had been wasted. It had been nothing but struggle for the past year. Struggle to arrange meetings, struggle to be seen as more than a girl playing at soldier, struggle to find the right ways to work within a system that had always been foreign to her.
They were closer to the city of Sibiu than to Brasov. For efficiency’s sake, Lada decided to stop there first. It took less time to herd hundreds of Sibiu’s sheep into the icy pond to drown than it had for a servant to inform her that the governor would not be meeting with her. The Wallachian shepherds, who would no doubt be killed for their failure to save the sheep, were quietly folded into her company.
That accomplished, Lada and her men passed through the slumbering, unprotected outer city of Sibiu, harming nothing and no one. Ahead of them rose the walls of the inner city, where only Transylvanian nobles—never Wallachians—were allowed to sleep. She imagined they dreamed deeply, pampered and protected by the sweat of Wallachian brows.
They had neither the time nor the numbers to launch an attack on inner Sibiu. And they were not here to conquer. They were here to destroy. As each volley of flaming arrows arced high over the walls and down into the maze of roofs, Lada’s smile grew simultaneously brighter and darker.
A few days later, they waited outside of Brasov for the sun to set. The city was set in a valley ringed with deep green growth. Towers stood at intervals along the inner city walls, each maintained by a different guild. If she were planning a siege, it would be a challenge.
But, as with Sibiu, they did not want to keep this city. They merely wanted to punish it.
At twilight, Nicolae returned from a scouting trip. “Terror spreads faster than any fire. Rumors are everywhere. You have taken Sibiu, you lead ten thousand Ottoman soldiers, you are the chosen servant of the devil.”
“Why must I always be a man’s servant?” Lada demanded. “If anything, I should be partners with the devil, not his servant.”
Bogdan scowled, crossing himself. He still clung to some bastard version of the religion they had been raised with. His mother—Lada and Radu’s nurse—had wielded Christianity like a switch, lashing out with whichever stories suited her needs at the time. Usually the ones about naughty children being eaten by bears. Lada and Radu had also attended church with Bogdan and his mother, but Lada remembered very little from those infinite suffocating hours.
Bogdan must have carried his religion with him through all his years with the Ottomans. Janissaries were converted to Islam. There were no other options. The rest of her men had dropped Islam like their Janissary caps, but they had not replaced it with anything else. Whatever faith they had had in their childhood had been trained out of them.
Read the full excerpt at EW.com.
Here’s a list of the tour dates and places Kiersten will be visiting for October and November:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Jessica Cluess, A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING
Arwen Elys Dayton, TRAVELER
Monday, October 24th at 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble #2072—Emeryville
Bay Street Emeryville
5604 Bay Street
Emeryville, CA 94608
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Jessica Cluess, A SHADOW BRIGHT & BURNING
Arwen Elys Dayton, TRAVELER
Tuesday, October 25th at 7:00 PM
Books Inc. Laurel Village
3515 California Street
San Francisco, CA
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Jessica Cluess, A SHADOW BRIGHT & BURNING
Arwen Elys Dayton, TRAVELER
Wednesday, October 26th at 7:00 PM
Menlo Park Public Library (arranged with Kepler’s)
800 Alma Street
Menlo Park, CA 94025
DENVER, CO
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Jessica Cluess, A SHADOW BRIGHT & BURNING
Arwen Elys Dayton, TRAVELER
Thursday, October 27th @ TIME TK
Old Town Library (arranged with Old Firehouse Books)
201 Peterson Street
Fort Collins, CO 80524
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Jessica Cluess, A SHADOW BRIGHT & BURNING
Arwen Elys Dayton, TRAVELER
Friday, October 28th @ 7:00 PM
Tattered Cover Colfax
2526 E Colfax Ave
Denver, CO 80206
SALT LAKE CITY, UT
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Jessica Cluess, A SHADOW BRIGHT & BURNING
Arwen Elys Dayton, TRAVELER
Saturday, October 29th at 7:00 PM
The King’s English Bookshop
1511 1500 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
AUSTIN, TX
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Jessica Cluess, A SHADOW BRIGHT & BURNING
Sunday, October 30th at 2:00 PM
BookPeople
603 N Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX 78703
NEW YORK, NY
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Catherine Egan, JULIA VANISHES
Tuesday, November 1st at 6:00 PM
Books of Wonder
18 W 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
NEW YORK, NY
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Catherine Egan, JULIA VANISHES
Wednesday, November 2nd at 6:30 PM
Barnes & Noble #2889—Yonkers
2614 Central Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701
WASHINGTON, DC
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, GEMINA
Kiersten White, AND I DARKEN
Catherine Egan, JULIA VANISHES
Thursday, November 3rd at 7:00 PM
Bethesda Library (arranged with Politics & Prose)
7400 Arlington Road
Bethesda, MD 20814