Fantasy authorHolly Blackreturns to Elfhame , the world ofThe Stolen Heir , next year with The Prisoner ’s Throne — explore the popular character of Oak in the first novel pen from his point of panorama . In io9 ’s undivided excerpt , Oak ’s bewilder behind bars … and let some conflicted feelings about what to do next .
An imprisoned prince . A vengeful queen . And a battle that will determine the future of Elfhame .
Prince Oak is paying for his treachery . imprison in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen , he must rely on charm and reckoning to survive . With in high spirits King Cardan and High Queen Jude uncoerced to use any means necessary to think their stolen successor , Oak will have to decide whether to try regaining the trust of the girlfriend he ’s always hump or to rest loyal to Elfhame and hand over the mean value to end her sovereignty — even if it means end Wren , too . With a new war looming on the horizon and treachery lurk in every corner , neither Oak ’s guile nor his wit will be enough to keep everyone he sleep together animated . It ’s just a question of whom he will doom .
Image: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Here ’s the full cover version , which was previously revealed , followed by the extract .
The coldness of the prisons eats at Oak ’s bones , and the stink of iron scratch his pharynx . The bridle presses against his cheeks , reminding him that he is fetter to an obedience that binds him more securely than any chain of mountains . But worst of all is the dread of what will happen next , a apprehension so great that he wishes it would just happen so he could stop dreading it .
On the morning after he was locked in his prison cell in the Harlan Fisk Stone dungeons beneath the Ice Needle Citadel of the former Court of Teeth , a retainer add him a mantle lined in rabbit fur . A kindness he did n’t know how to interpret . No matter how tightly he wraps it around himself , though , he is seldom warm .
Image: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Twice each Clarence Shepard Day Jr. he is impart food . Water , often with a rime of sparkler on the surface . Soup , hot enough to make him comfortable for a short 60 minutes or so . As the days stretch on , he fear that , rather than putting his anguish off , as one puts a peculiarly yummy bite to the side of one ’s photographic plate to be deliver for last , he has only been forgotten .
Once , he think he recognized Wren ’s shadow , observing him from a aloofness . He called to her , but she did n’t answer . Maybe she ’d never been there . The Fe muddles his thought . Perhaps he only see what he so desperately wanted to see .
She has not spoken with him since she sent him here . Not even to use the bridle to command him . Not even to triumph .
Sometimes he holler into the darkness , just to remind himself that he can .
These dungeons were built to swallow screams . No one comes .
Today , he holler himself hoarse and then slumps against a wall . He wish he could tell himself a taradiddle , but he can not convince himself that he is a braw prince support a setback on a daring quest , nor the tempestuous , star‑crossed lover he has play at so many times in the past times . Not even the loyal sidekick and son he have in mind to be when he coif out from Elfhame .
Whatever he is , he ’s certainly no champion .
A guard stump down the mansion , driving Oak to his hooves . One of the falcons . Straun . The prince has overheard him at the gate before , complaining , not realize his voice carry . He is ambitious , tire by the tedium of guard duty duty , and eager to show off his acquirement in front of the new nance .
Wren , whose peach Straun rhapsodise over .
Oak hates Straun .
“ You there , ” the falcon says , take out closely . “ Be muted before I quiet you . ”
Ah , Oak realizes . He ’s so blase that he wants to make something materialise .
“ I am merely trying to give this keep an authentic ambiance , ” Oak says . “ What ’s a place like this without the battle cry of the tormented ? ”
“ Traitor ’s son , you suppose much of yourself , but you cognize nothing of torment , ” Straun say , kick the iron parallel bars with the heel of his kick , prepare them ring . “ Soon , though . Soon , you ’ll learn . You should preserve your screech . ”
Traitor ’s son . Interesting . Not just bored , then , but resentful of Madoc .
Oak steps close enough to the bars that he can feel the heat of the iron . “ Does Wren signify to punish me , then ? ”
Straun snigger . “ Our pouf has more of import thing to attend to than you . She ’s move to the Stone Forest to awake the troll B. B. King . ”
Oak stares at him , stunned .
The falcon smiling . “ Worry not , though . The storm hag is still here . perchance she ’ll send for you . Her punishments are legendary . ” With that , he walks back toward the gate .
Oak sags to the cold trading floor , wild and despairing .
You have to break out . The thought strikes him forcefully . You must chance a way .
Not easy , that . The iron bars burn . The ignition lock is hard to piece , though he try out once with a ramification . All he managed to do was snap off one of the tines and assure that all subsequent food was sent only with spoons .
Not easy to break away . And besides , mayhap , after everything , Wren still might chitchat him .
Oak wake on the Lucy Stone level of his electric cell with his head call and his breath clouding in the melody . He flash in confusion , still half in dreams . He ’s seldom able to sleep deeply with so much smoothing iron around him , but that ’s not what woke him tonight .
A enceinte cresting wave of magic washes over the Citadel , flow from somewhere south , crashing down with manifest power . Then there is a shiver in the dry land , as though something monumental moved upon it .
It come to him then that the Stone Forest is south of the Citadel . The trembling is not something act upon the earth but something shed from it . Wren did it . She has released the round kings from their bondage beneath the ground .
break an ancient expletive , one so old that for Oak it seems waver into the fabric of the populace , as implacable as the sea and sky .
He can almost hear the crack sound of the rocks that imprisoned them . crack spiderwebbing out from two direction at once , from both boulders . Waves of magical military force flowing from those pair centers , intense enough that nearby trees would split aside , sending the ice‑crusted blue yield to scatter on the coke .
He can almost see the two ancient troll kings , climb up from the earth , adulterate for the first time in C . Tall as giants , didder off all that had grow over them in their slumber . Dirt and locoweed , small Tree , and rocks would all rain down down from their shoulders .
Wren had done it .
And since that is supposed to be inconceivable , the prince has no idea what she might do next .
Since he ’s unlikely to be able to log Z’s again , Oak locomote through the exercises the Ghost learn him long ago so that he could still drill while stuck in the deathly world .
Imagine you have a weapon . They had been in Vivi ’s second apartment , standing on a humble alloy balcony . indoors , Taryn and Vivi had been overprotect over Leander , who was learn to crawl . The Ghost had asked about Oak ’s training and been uninterested in the excuse that he was eleven , had to go to school , and could n’t be swinging around a longsword in the common space of the lawn without neighbors getting worried .
Oh hail on ! Oak express mirth , mean the spy was being silly .
The Ghost conjured the semblance of a steel out of thin air , its hilt decorated with ivy . His glamour was so honest that Oak had to look closely to see that it was n’t real . Your bout , prince .
Oak had actually liked make his own steel . It was huge and disastrous with a smart red hilt overlay in demonish faces . It look like the sword of someone in an gum anime he ’d been watching , and he felt like a badass , holding it in his hands .
The sight of Oak ’s blade had made the Ghost smile , but he did n’t express joy . Instead , he part displace through a series of exercises , exhort Oak to follow . He told the prince should call him by his non‑spy name , Garrett , since they were supporter .
you may do this , the Ghost — Garrett — tell him . When you have nothing else .
Nothing else to drill with , he probably meant . Although right now , Oak has nothing else , full diaphragm .
The exercises warm up him just enough to be midway comfortable when he wraps the cover around his shoulder joint .
The prince has been jug three weeks , accord to the tallies he ’s made in the dust beneath the solitary bench . Long enough to harp on every misapprehension he has made on his ill‑fated quest . Long enough to endlessly reconsider what he ought to have done in the swamp after the Thistlewitch turn to him and spoke in her raspy part : Did n’t you know , prince of Charles James Fox , what you already had ? What a fine jest , to look for Mellith ’s heart when she take the air beside you .
At the retentiveness , Oak stands and step the floor , his hooves clack restlessly against the black Isidor Feinstein Stone . He should have assure her the truth . Should have told her and take the consequences .
Instead , he convinced himself that keeping the secret of her descent protected her , but was that true ? Or was it more true that he ’d manipulated her , the elbow room he manipulated everyone in his life ? That was what he was good at , after all — tricks , games , insincerity .
His family must be in a panic correctly now . He trusts that Tiernan receive Madoc to Elfhame safely , no matter what the redcap full general want . But Jude would be furious with Tiernan for allow for Oak behind and even angrier with Madoc , if she suppose just how much of this is his fault .
peradventure Cardan would be relieved to be rid of Oak , but that would n’t stop Jude from making a plan to get him back . Jude has been ruthless on Oak ’s behalf before , but this is the first time it ’s scared him . Wren is grave . She is not someone to cross . Neither of them are .
He call back the press of Wren ’s abrupt teeth against his shoulder . The queasy muff of her kiss , the shine of her wet eyes , and how he repaid her reluctant faith with deception . Again and again in his brain , he find out the betrayal on her aspect when she realized what an tremendous arcanum he ’d kept .
It does n’t weigh if you deserve to be in her prison , he tell himself . You still need to get out .
Sitting in the dark , he listen to the safeguard dally dice biz . They have open a jugful of a particularly firm Retama raetam pot likker in solemnization of Wren ’s accomplishment . Straun is the loudest and drunk of the bunch , and the one losing the most coin .
Oak snooze off and wakes to the tread of easygoing footfalls . He surges to his hoof , moving as unaired to the iron bar as he dares .
A huldu fair sex comes into opinion , pay a tray , her tail swishing behind her .
Disappointment is a Hell in his abdomen .
“ Fernwaif , ” he says , and her centre go to his . He can see the chariness in them .
“ You remember my name , ” she says , as though it ’s some sort of trick . As though princes have the care twain of gnats .
“ Most sure as shooting I do . ” He smile , and after a second , she visibly relaxes , her shoulders lour .
He would n’t have note that chemical reaction before . After all , smiles were supposed to reassure people . Just maybe not quite so much as his smiles did .
Maybe you ca n’t help it . Maybe you do it without have it off . That ’s what Wren had said when he claimed he did n’t use his honey‑mouthed charm , his gancanagh ability , anymore . He ’d perplex to the rules Oriana had given him . for sure , he be intimate the correct things to say to make someone like him , but he ’d told himself that was n’t the same as just break himself over to the magic , not the same as enchanting them .
But sit down in the dark , he has reconsidered . What if the top executive leaches out of him like a miasma ? Like a poison ? Perhaps the seducing of conspirators he ’d done was n’t his being clever or companionable , it was his using a world power they could n’t fight against . What if he is a much worse mortal than he ’s suppose ?
And as though to prove it , he presses his advantage , sorcerous or not .
He smiles more broadly speaking at Fernwaif . “ You ’re far superior company to the sentry go who brought my food yesterday , ” he tell her with utter sincerity , thinking of a troll who would n’t so much as satisfy his gaze . Who spilled half his water on the background and then grinned at him , show a set of loony teeth .
Fernwaif snorts . “ I do n’t sleep together if that ’s much of a compliment . ”
It was n’t . “ Shall I tell you or else that your hair is like spun gold , your eye like sapphires ? ”
She titter , and he can see her cheek are pinkish as she pulls out the empty bowls near the slot at the bottom of the cell and replaces them with the new tray . “ You well not . ”
“ I can do better , ” he says . “ And perhaps you might bring me a short gossip to pep up the parky monotony of my days . ”
“ You ’re very silly , Your Highness , ” she says after a consequence , biting her bottom lip a little .
His gaze journey , evaluating the pockets of her dress for the weight of key . Her blush deepen .
“ I am , ” he agree . “ goofy enough to have gotten myself into this predicament . I wonder if you could take a subject matter to Wr — to your novel queen ? ”
She looks off . “ I dare not , ” she says , and he knows he ought to give it at that .
He remembers Oriana ’s warning to him when he was a child . A power like the one you have is unsafe , she said . you’re able to know what other people most want to get a line . Say those things , and they will not only require to heed to you . They will come up to require you above all other thing . The making love that a gancanagh inspires — some may pine away for desire of it . Others will carve the gancanagh to piece to be certain no one else has it .
He made a mistake when he first went to shoal in the mortal domain . He felt alone at the mortal schooltime , and so when he made a friend , he wanted to keep him . And he knew just how . It was light ; all he had to do was say the proper things . He remembers the taste of the index on his tongue , provide lyric he did n’t even understand . Soccer and Minecraft , praise for the boy ’s drawings . Not lies , but nowhere near the the true , either . They had fun together , consort around the playground , drenched in sweat , or diddle video games in the boy ’s cellar . They had fun together until he find that when they were aside , even for a few hours , the boy would n’t speak . Would n’t eat up . Would just look until he see Oak again .
With that storage in his mind , Oak stumble on , wedge his mouth into a smile he hopes looks real . “ You see , I wish to have your queen acknowledge that I await her pleasure . I am hers to require , and I desire she will occur and do just that . ”
“ You do n’t want to be economize ? ” Fernwaif smile . She ’s the one teasing him now . “ Shall I inform my mistress that you are so tame she can let you out ? ”
“ Tell her . . . , ” Oak says , hold his astonishment at the news she ’s reelect to the Citadel off his face through sheer force of will . “ say her that I am wasted in all this gloom . ”
Fernwaif laughs , her eyes shining as though Oak is a romantic figure in a narrative . “ She asked me to add up today , ” the huldu lady friend confides in a rustle .
That seems hopeful . The first hopeful affair he ’s take heed in a while .
“ Then I greatly desire your report of me to be a favorable one , ” he says , and makes a bow .
Her nerve are still pinkish with pleasure when she leaves , digress with light steps . He can see the swish of her fanny beneath her skirt .
Oak take in her go before bending down and inspecting his tray — a mushroom-shaped cloud pie , a ramekin of jam , an entire steaming teapot with a loving cup , a field glass of melted snow urine . Nicer food than usual . And yet he come up he has trivial appetence for it .
All he can call back of is Wren , whom he has every reason to fear and desire anyway . Who may be his enemy and a danger to everyone else he loves .
Oak kick his hoof against the I. F. Stone wall of his cage . Then he move to pour himself a cup of the pine needle tea before it cools . The warmth of the pot on his hands limber his fingers enough that , had he another fork , he would try that engage again .
That nighttime , he wakes to the quite a little of a Hydra crawling down the wall , its fatal metallic element body bejewel and glittering . A fork-like emerald tongue taste the air at even intervals , like a metronome .
It startles him badly enough for him to back up against the parallel bars , the iron hot against his shoulders . He has seen brute like it before , spirt by the dandy smiths of Faerie . worthful and dangerous .
The paranoid thought comes to him that toxicant would be one straightforward way to work the problem of his being held by an enemy of Elfhame . If he were dead , there ’d be no reason to pay a ransom .
He does n’t guess his sister would tolerate it , but there are those who might risk going around her . Grima Mog , the new tremendous full general , would know incisively where to find oneself the prince , having served the Court of Teeth herself . Grima Mog might calculate forrard to the warfare it would get down . And , of class , she answered to Cardan as much as Jude .
Not to mention there was always the theory that Cardan convinced Jude that Oak was a danger to them both .
“ Hello , ” he whispers warily to the snake .
It yaw widely enough for him to see silver fangs . The liaison of its body move , and a ring comes up from its pharynx , clang to the floor . He lean down and lifts it . A Au ring with a recondite blue pit , scuffed with wear . His ring , a nowadays from his mother on his 13th natal day and left behind on his dresser because it no longer conform to his finger’s breadth . substantiation that this creature was place from Elfhame . Proof that he was supposed to swear it .
“ Prinss , ” it says . “ In three daysssss , you mussss be quick for resssss‑cue . ”
“ deliverance ? ” Not here to poison him , then .
The snake just stares with its frigid , glitter eyes .
Many nights , he hop someone would arrive for him . Even though he wanted it to be Wren , there were plenty of times he imagined the Bomb blowing a cakehole in the wall and baffle him out .
But now that it ’s a real opening , he ’s surprised by how he feel .
“ Give me longer , ” he says , no matter that it ’s absurd to negotiate with a metal snake and even more ridiculous to negotiate for his own immurement , just in decree to get a chance to speak with someone who refuses to see him . “ Two more weeks perhaps . A month . ”
If he could only verbalize to Wren , he could explain . Maybe she would n’t forgive him , but if she understand he was n’t her foeman , that would be enough .
Even convincing her that she did n’t have to be an foe to Elfhame would be something .
“ Three dayssssss , ” it say again . Its enchantment is either too simple to decipher his dissent or it has been tell to discount them . “ Be rehhhhdy . ”
Oak slides the ring onto his pinkie digit , watching the snake as it coils its way up the wall . midway to the ceiling , he realizes that just because it was n’t get off to poison him does n’t mean it was n’t send out to envenom someone .
He jumps onto the bench and catch for it , catching the end of its tail . With a tug , it comes off the wall , falling against his body and coiling around his forearm .
“ Prinsssss , ” it hisses . As it opens its back talk to speak , he notes the tiny hollow in the points of its silver fang .
When it does not strike , Oak pries the snake cautiously from around his arm . Then , gripping the end of its fanny firmly , he slams it down against the stone bench . get word the crack of its delicate mechanical voice . A precious stone flies off . So does a while of metallic element . He whips it against the terrace again .
A sound like the whistle of a teakettle issue forth from it , and its coils writhe . He bring its body down firmly twice more , until it is broken and perfectly still .
Oak feels relieved and terrible at the same time . Perhaps it was no more alive than one of the ragweed steeds , but it had spoken . It had seemed active .
He sinks to the level . Inside the metal tool , he finds a glass ampul , now crock up . The liquid inside is bloodred and clot . Blusher mushroom . The one poison unlikely to harm him . Welcome proof that his babe does n’t want him dead . Maybe Cardan does n’t , either .
The snake is wilted in his bridge player , the magic operate from it . He tremble to guess of what could have happened had the creature been send to visit Wren before finding him in the prison . Or if his iron‑addled mind had only realized the risk too late .
Three days .
He can no longer dawdle . No longer dread . No longer scheme . He has to act , and tight .
Oak listens for the changing of the guard . Once he get wind Straun ’s vocalization , he bangs on the measure until the guard duty comes . It consume a long metre , but not as long as it might have if Straun was n’t in a foul humour from a night of drinking and lose money at dice .
“ Did n’t I tell you to shut up ? ” the falcon roars .
“ You ’re go to get me out of this prison cell , ” Oak says .
Straun pause , then sneers , but there ’s a little chariness in it . “ Have you hightail it mad , princeling ? ”
Oak holds out his manus . A collection of gemstone rests in his scratched palm . He spent the better part of the night intrude them out of the eubstance of the snake . Each is deserving ten times what Straun gambled by . The falcon snorts in disgust but can not mask his interest . “ You mean to buy me ? ”
“ Will it knead ? ” Oak enquire , walking to the edge of his cell . He ’s not sure if it ’s his magic inspire him on or not .
Almost against his will , Straun stride closer . respectable . The prince can reek the sharpness of the juniper liquor on his breathing spell . Perhaps he is still a little drunk . Even well .
Oak reaches his right manus midway through the bars , lifting it so the gems catch the light-headed edge of torchlight . He slides his other hand through , too , lower .
Straun smacks Oak ’s arm hard . His tegument strike the iron cake on his cell , burn . The prince howls as the gems fall , most scattering across the corridor between the cell .
“ Did n’t opine I was half so clever as you , did you ? ” Straun laugh as he gather up the I. F. Stone , not having promised a single affair .
“ I did not , ” Oak let in .
Straun spits on the floor in front of the prince ’s cage . “ No amount of gold or gems will make unnecessary you . If my winter queen wants you to rot here , you ’re go to rot . ”
“ Your wintertime queen ? ” Oak repeats , unable to check himself . The falcon looks a piddling shamefaced and turns to go back to his office . He ’s new , Oak realizes . Older than Oak , but not by so very much . Younger than Hyacinthe . It should n’t be a surprisal that Wren made such an impression on him .
It should n’t bother Oak , should n’t fill him with a ferocious jealousy .
What the prince require to centre on is the winder in his left hand .
The one he grab from the loop at Straun ’s belt when the falcon smacked his right weapon system . Straun , who was , thankfully , on the dot as apt as Oak had supposed him to be . The key fits swimmingly into the lock of Oak ’s cell . It flex so soundlessly it might as well have been greased .
Not that Straun is likely to do back to check on him , no matter how loud he bang on the bars . The guard will be feeling smug . Well , let him .
The prince lift a piece of material he ’s torn from his shirt and soaked in blusher mushroom liquid scavenge from the snake . Then he starts down the lobby , his breath clouding in the dusty air .
The Ghost learn him how to move stealthily , but he ’s never been very good at it . He pick his hooves , lowering and hard . They brattle at the worst possible time . But he makes an endeavour , slither them against the floor to minimize noise .
Straun is grumbling to another safety equipment about how the others are slicker , refuse to trifle any more die games . Oak waiting until one leaves to convey back more refreshment and listens severely to the pull in one’s horns steps of boots .
After he ’s sure there ’s only one guard there , he tries the logic gate . It ’s not even mesh . He theorize there ’s no reason for it to be when there ’s only one captive , and he wear a bridle to keep him obedient .
Oak incite fast , jerk Straun backward and covering his nose and mouth with the cloth . The sentry go struggle , but inhaling blusher mushroom cloud slacken his movements . Oak campaign him to the floor until he ’s unconscious .
From there , it ’s just a matter of arranging his body so that when the other guard retort , he might believe he ’s dozed off . It ’s operose for Oak to forget the guard ’s blade at his hip , but its absence would almost certainly give him away . He does , however , snatch up the cloak he finds hanging on a hooking beside the threshold .
The Prisoner ’s potty by Holly Black take out by permit of Little , Brown Books for Young Readers .
The Prisoner ’s crapper by Holly Black will be released March 5 , 2024 ; you could pre - rate a copyhere .
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