May 28, 2024 - Anastasia Suen

The City Beyond the Stars
by Zohra Nabi (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Yara may have stopped the magical plague spreading its way through her new home, but to do so, she had to leave her mother in the hands of the sinister alchemists.

Now Yara longs to return to Zehaira and free her mother from her prison. Yet when her mother’s familiar arrives, close to death and bearing a message, Yara must put aside her plans to rescue her and instead set off with her friends to the official residence of the Grand High Sorceress, convinced it holds magic powerful enough to defeat the alchemists.

After a treacherous journey, Yara finds her mother’s house, and in it, a girl claiming to be the daughter of the Grand High Sorceress–a sister Yara didn’t know she had. Meanwhile, the alchemists are circling ever closer, and the magic that Yara’s mother was working threatens the foundations of their world.

Yara is unsure if her newfound sister can be trusted, but she is going to need all the help she can get if she wants to save their mother and take back Zehaira from the alchemists’ rule.

Snippet: Yara Sulimayah was running. She could hear her friends calling after her, making half-hearted attempts to follow. She had never been very fast, but it was amazing how quickly you could move when you were desperate to get away. Only her familiar, Ajal, was keeping pace, sparks flying from his goat hooves as he cantered.

Yara! Leyla Khatoun’s voice sounded in her head, a mental message from her furious teacher. Yara Sulimayah, come back this instant!

Yara ignored her, shutting the sorceress out of her mind as best she could. She weaved her way through the sorcerers’ settlement, through its cluster of houses with their silver-birch roofs, past cauldrons that filled the air with warm colorful steam, and under clotheslines where newly dyed shawls had been hung out to dry. The Settlement had become as familiar to her as her old home back in Bournemouth–and she had become familiar to its people too; as she ran past they called out to her, some trying to slow her down. But she didn’t stop, and soon they were far behind her.

To the west of the Settlement were the mountains, where the stream ran milky with melted snow and the ground became steep and rocky beneath Yara’s feet. Still she ran, and when she could no longer run, she climbed. Even in the mild spring air her back was damp, her hair sticking unpleasantly to her scalp.

Leyla’s voice sounded in her mind again. Yara, come back. It’s not safe!