‘He’s my father!’ she bellowed, pointing to Trevanion.
‘Vestie!’ Beatriss said firmly, stopping to stare up at her. ‘I’ll snip at that tongue if I ever see it in such a way again! Trevanion, speak to her.’
Vestie hung her head, shamefaced.
‘Vestie,’ he said, his voice still gentle.
‘Yes, Father.’
‘Shout it out louder, my love. Shout it out louder.’
In the valley between two kingdoms she sat on the rock face and waited for the day to begin. It was always at this hour that she thought of him, and wondered how those they loved were faring. But she knew they had made the right decision. That what they were doing was for the greater good of Charyn, no matter how much heartbreak it brought.
‘Do you think it will rain again?’ a voice asked from within the cave.
‘No,’ Phaedra of Alonso said, turning with a smile. ‘You should all come out. It’s beautiful. I think I see the sun.’
Acknowledgements
A special thanks to my editor Amy Thomas for her intelligence and musical taste and for sometimes loving these characters as much as I did.
Also much thanks to Cathy Larsen who made sense of my maps, Marina Messiha for yet another beautiful cover, and Jean-marie Morosin for her proofreading.
To my manuscript readers, Barbara Barclay, Brenda Souter and my mum, Adelina Marchetta, for dealing with early drafts. To Anna Musarra, for the tattoo that inspired the day of weeping.
Thanks always to the Penguin gang especially my publisher Laura Harris to whom this novel is dedicated and Kristin Gill, Anyez Lindop and Erin Wamala.
For my US editor, Deborah Wayshak, and everyone at Candlewick and my agents Sophie Hamley, Jill Grinberg and Cheryl Pientka.
And thanks always to friends and family and the writers in my life who allow me to purge.
A note about the setting: Finnikin of the Rock, the first of the Lumatere Chronicles, was inspired by the landscape around the Dordogne area of France. It was during my visit to this region that the novel found the second half of its title. With Froi of the Exiles, I knew the physicality would have to have a different type of beauty. The town of Matera in Basilicata, Italy, with its amazing gravina (ravine) was the first place I researched when I knew that Froi would be set in a world of stone houses and cave frescoes. The rest of my research centred around the castle of Conwy in Wales and the truly sublime Cappadocia in Turkey with its unique landscape and underground cities.
VIKING
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First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2011
Text copyright © Melina Marchetta 2011
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ISBN: 978-1-74253-406-0
Froi of the Exiles: The Lumatere Chronicles Page 53