But I knew it had.
I stood slowly, trying to judge where this new feeling of strangeness, of imbalance, emanated from. But I couldn’t place it. Biter croaked softly.
“I’m all right,” I said, “I think.” I turned to Azar-at. “I don’t want the others to know.”
Azar-at seemed to ponder this. As you wish, Kamzin.
I took a deep breath, gazing at the landscape before me, the snowy slopes touched with fire from the newly risen sun. Somewhere, in the still-shadowed curve of Mount Raksha, Lusha and Tem waited for me. And somewhere in the distance, in an equally shadowy and terrible corner of the land, the witches were awakening to a new day. A new world.
“All right,” I said, setting my jaw. “Let’s go home.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THANKS TO MY brilliant agent, Brianne Johnson, who is the best possible champion an author could have, and to my equally brilliant editor, Kristin Rens, for her insights, questions, and encouragement. Thanks to Jeff Huang, the artist behind the amazing cover, and to the rest of the team at Balzer + Bray (I couldn’t imagine a better publishing home), including Bess Braswell, Tyler Breitfeller, Laura Kaplan, Sarah Kaufman, Kelsey Murphy, Emily Rader, and copy editor Janet Robbins Rosenberg.
Thanks also to those who read the book and provided enormously helpful feedback at various stages, including Amy Chen, Stephanie Li, Jordan Rai, and Wendy Xu. Thanks to Dr. Lauran Hartley, for her many insights on Tibetan culture and language, and to Shannon Grant, for reading it twice. Any flaws remaining are, of course, mine alone.
I also want to acknowledge the incredible female mountaineers who helped inspire this story, particularly Lhakpa Sherpa and Junko Tabei. And finally, thanks to my family and friends, for their encouragement and support, particularly my parents and my sister, and to you, for picking this book up and joining Kamzin’s expedition into the unknown.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COURTESY HEATHER FAWCETT
HEATHER FAWCETT has worked as an archaeologist, an aerospace technical writer, and a backstage assistant for a Shakespearean theater festival. In her spare time, she can be found reading, hiking, reading, eating ice cream, or reading. This is her first book. Visit Heather online at www.heatherfawcettbooks.com.
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BOOKS BY HEATHER FAWCETT
Even the Darkest Stars
All the Wandering Light
CREDITS
COVER ART BY JEFF HUANG
COVER DESIGN BY SARAH NICHOLE KAUFMAN
COPYRIGHT
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
EVEN THE DARKEST STARS. Copyright © 2017 by Heather Fawcett. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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ISBN 978-0-06-246338-8
EPub Edition © August 2017 ISBN 9780062463401
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FIRST EDITION
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Even the Darkest Stars Page 33