Six years have passed since Paula and her sisters danced in the magical glade of the Other Kingdom. Six long years since her sister Tati gave up the mortal world for love. Scholarly Paula now travels to the exotic and dangerous city of Istanbul to help her father recover a fabled treasure of a lost religion, Cybele’s Gift. It is said that the owner of the artefact will be blessed with riches and good fortune.

The search for the artefact quickly turns into a dangerous quest for truth and self-discovery, and Paula must use all her wits and courage to work out who she can trust and decipher the mysterious messages she is receiving from the Other Kingdom. Pirates, ruthless merchants, murderers and the Mufti’s royal guard all stand in the way of finding Cybele’s Secret.

OTHER TITLES

Juliet Marillier

Heart’s Blood

That man’s warped and twisted like thread gone awry on the loom. The curse got him with a vengeance . . .

Caitrin, daughter of Berach, flees her home in Market Cross, running from her grief and mistreatment at the hands of her kinsfolk. Bruised and alone she arrives at Whistling Tor – a formidable fortification presided over by the local chieftain, Anluan. The villagers scorn and curse him for being a weak and unsupportive leader, unresponsive to their pleas for him to rid the surrounding forest of the ghostly and eerie manifestations that have plagued it for generations.

But desperate for work and shelter, Caitrin ignores their warnings, thinking them nothing more than fancifully tales and seeks refuge at the Tor. Here she encounters giant hounds, malevolent whispering in the night and the rare and precious herb, Heart’s Blood; not to mention the moody and cursed Anluan.

As Caitrin slowly begins to regain control of her life, she discovers that not everything is as it seems in this mysterious place. What does Anluan’s skewed features and anger hide? Who are the men and women of the Host? What might the ancient manuscripts and family documents in the library reveal? And why does Caitrin get the distinct impression that there is a dark and powerful force on the hill that doesn’t want her to find the truth?

Copyright page

First published 2014 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited

1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000

Copyright © Juliet Marillier 2014

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available

from the National Library of Australia

EPUB format: 9781743518359

Typeset by Post Pre-press Group

Cover design by Adam Auerbach