The Waterless Sea - Kate Constable

The Waterless Sea is the second of Kate Constable's "Chanters of Tremaris" series. The story opens a year after the end of The Singer of All Songs. Tremaris is still a divided land and in one of the lands, chanter children are kidnapped or stolen by the dark sorcerers who inhabit the Black Palace. Calwyn and her friends Mica, Tonno and Hasaal travel to the Merithuran Empire in search of two such kidnapped children, orphan twins who are the responsibility of Heben, whose father has cast him off for daring to protest against their kidnap; he has cared for them for several years and cannot just let them go. Calwyn and her party must survive the vast and unforgiving desert, and the Imperial Court in the peculiar Palace of Cobwebs. Whilst there Calwyn and her friends uncover the shameful secret that binds together the whole of the Merithuran Empire. And while Calwyn and the others are attempting to rescue the missing twins, her friend Darrow has formed a shaky alliance with a group of rebels who want to overthrow the Emperor and who are marching on the Black Palace. But can Darrow be trusted given that he has the power of the great Ring of Lyonssar ? In a stunning climax to the book, Calwyn takes drastic action to prevent a major war breaking out across the Empire, but her actions have far greater consequences than she could have imagined.

The third book in the trilogy The Tenth Power is out soon in paperback, and I cannot wait to see how it turns out !

(This book was received for review from Nikki Gamble at Write Away.)