Ten years ago, Valoria conquered Herran, a peninsular nation that valued art and philosophy slightly more than war and military prowess. Like all good conquerors, the Valorians enslaved whatever Herrani were left. While at the market one day with a friend, Kestral, the daughter of the general who led Valoria to victory, finds herself stuck in the crowd of people around the day's slave auction when a young Herrani blacksmith comes up for purchase. Without totally realizing what she's doing, or why, she finds herself bidding on him, pushing the price higher and higher until she finally manages to win. A little surprised with herself, she brings the smith, Arin, home and puts him to work. But she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him, and is soon looking for ways to talk to him about him and his life before slavery. And Arin, despite playing an integral part in a plot to lead the Herrani into rebellion, also finds himself drawn to her, wanting to legitimately know more about her, and not just looking for information that will be helpful to his secret cause. When the rebellion happens, Arin's role in it feels like betrayal, and Kestral, who can usually manage to out-think her opponents before they realize it, doesn't see it coming and is left not knowing what to do or who to trust.
This book is beautiful, from its cover to its words. Marie Rutkowski does a fantastic job of making both Arin and Kestral nuanced characters. Both are filled with doubts and uncertainty over who they are, if they can be what others need them to be. And even when we're reading their perspective, you can never really know the truth of them, as they both manage to avoid thinking about and examining their true feelings, especially about each other. Rutkowski is so good at writing around the edges of things, leaving the reader to try and fill in the empty spaces between words, that even after spending time inside both Arin's and Kestral's heads, they still manage to be enigmas. The action definitely picks up in the second half of the book, and keeping track of the time gets a little difficult. With so much happening by the end of this book, it's hard to see where the rest of the trilogy is going to go. But I'm ready to be surprised, and ready to spend more time with Arin and Kestral.
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