by Rin Chupeco
I gazed up again at the bone witch’s likeness, so lost in my own thoughts that it took a few seconds for the woman’s words to seep through. When they finally did, I turned, a low cry leaving my mouth.
But I was alone in the royal gardens. The young girl and her companion had vanished.
The World of the Bone Witch: The Eight Kingdoms
ISTERA
• The coldest among the eight kingdoms
• Has gone to war with Tresea over the Heartsbane Islands in the past and still shares some animosity
• Separated from Tresea by the River of Peace
CAPITAL: Farsun
CURRENT RULER: King Rendorvik of House Petralta
TRESEA
• Composed of mostly dense woods and wide plains
• Population is concentrated mainly in cities, with small scatterings of villages throughout
CAPITAL: Highgaard
CURRENT RULER: Czar Kamulus of House Ambersturg
DAANORIS
• Mild to moderate weather, most-populated kingdom
CAPITAL: Santiang
CURRENT RULER: Emperor Shifang
YADOSHA CITY-STATES
• The whole continent was originally the kingdom of Yadosha, but infighting among the royal descendants soon splintered it into several warring states and shrunk their dominion into only its upper continent
• While each city-state maintains a high degree of independence, all share one main government to foster ties and maintain diplomatic missions
• Each city-state has a second minister to govern them; every seven years, a first minister is elected among the second ministers to represent Yadosha as a whole
CAPITAL: None
CURRENT RULER: First Minister Stefan
KION
• Once a part of Yadosha; many kingdoms conquered and fought over this land before Kion was able to achieve its independence through Vernasha of the Roses, a legendary asha
• A melting pot of culture and the main headquarters of the asha
• Smallest land among the kingdoms
CAPITAL: Ankyo
CURRENT RULER: Empress Alyx of House Imperial
ODALIA
• Composed of plains and forests
• Originally a part of the kingdom of Yadosha but was the first in the continent to rebel and break off into its own kingdom
CAPITAL: Kneave
CURRENT RULER: King Telemaine of House Odalia
ARHEN-KOSHO
• Large group of islands on the Swiftsea, near Odalia and Kion
CAPITAL: Hottenheim
CURRENT RULER: Queen Lynoria of House Imperial
DRYCHT
• Desert kingdom
• Also notable for its austere and extreme perspective generally held in contempt by most of the other kingdoms, but tolerated for the runeberry cloth they provide
• Only the western continent of Drycht is heavily populated; the majority of the kingdom is made of sand.
CAPITAL: Adra-al
CURRENT RULER: King Aadil of the Tavronoo clan
Acknowledgments
I don’t make it a habit of extending this particular page, as writing books has always been a solitary journey for me. But publishing them—that’s a different story. As always, I cannot even remotely begin to express the amount of gratitude I feel for the people who have made all this possible.
For Rebecca Podos, my agent of more than six years and first cheerleader, who has stuck by me through many books and, I hope, for even many more.
For the Sourcebooks team: Annette Pollert-Morgan, Kathryn Lynch, Alex Yeadon, Cassie Gutman, Sarah Kasman, Gretchen Stelter, and everyone else who worked hard to make this a reality—thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I started The Bone Witch with the intention of writing about a girl and the brother she raised from the dead, and realized in the course of three books that despite the necromancy and the corpse-eating and the fighting, I was also writing about love in its many-splendored incarnations. Love for siblings, romantic love, platonic love. Love for the family you grew up with and love for the family you form with others. Love for country, love for yourself, love for people you’ve never even met. And, more importantly, about all the great things you can be capable of because of those loves. Take a moment to hug someone you love today—they will always appreciate it.
And to complete the trifecta of my thanking celebrities, I would also like to thank Terry Crews for being a perfectly sculpted angel the world does not deserve.
About the Author
Rin Chupeco wrote obscure manuals for complicated computer programs, talked people out of their money at event shows, and did many other terrible things before becoming an author. She now writes about ghosts and fairy tales and is the author of The Girl from the Well, The Suffering, and the Bone Witch Trilogy. Rin lives in the Philippines with her family. Visit her online at rinchupeco.com.
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