The Queens of Renthia - La série

[Traduction personnelle] LES REINES DE RENTHIA, t. 1 : LA REINE DU SANG Tout possède un esprit : le saule dont les feuilles embrassent l'étang, le courant qui nourrit la rivière, le vent qui souffle de la neige fraîche... Mais les esprits qui résident dans ces terres veulent se débarrasser de tous les humains. Une seule femme se tient entre ces esprits malveillants et l'humanité : la reine. Elle seule a suffisamment de puissance magique pour les empêcher de détruire chaque homme, femme et enfant. Mais les reines ne sont elles aussi qu'humaines, et peu importe leur force ou leur bonté, le danger les guette. En raison de cette position si précaire, plusieurs jeunes femmes sont choisies pour être entraînées comme héritières. Daleina, une étudiante en apparence discrète, ne se fait aucune illusion concernant ses chances de s'asseoir sur le trône, mais veut seulement réparer les torts qui sont survenus sur ces terres. Ven, un champion en disgrâce, a passé son exil à se battre en secret contre les attaques de plus en plus fréquentes des esprits. Joignant leurs forces, ces audacieux partenaires embarquent pour une quête semée d'embûches afin de trouver la source de l'entêtement des esprits, un voyage qui va mettre à l'épreuve leur courage et leur confiance, et les forcer à s'opposer aussi bien à leurs ennemis qu'à leurs proches pour sauver leurs terres... avant qu'elles ne baignent dans le sang.

Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . . And those spirits want to kill you. It’s the first lesson that every Renthian learns. Not long ago, Daleina used her strength and skill to survive those spirits and assume the royal throne. Since then, the new queen has kept the peace and protected the humans of her land. But now for all her power, she is hiding a terrible secret: she is dying. And if she leaves the world before a new heir is ready, the spirits that inhabit her beloved realm will run wild, destroying her cities and slaughtering her people. Naelin is one such person, and she couldn’t be further removed from the Queen—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Her world is her two children, her husband, and the remote village tucked deep in the forest that is her home, and that’s all she needs. But when Ven, the Queens champion, passes through the village, Naelin’s ambitious husband proudly tells him of his wife’s ability to control spirits—magic that Naelin fervently denies. She knows that if the truth of her abilities is known, it will bring only death and separation from those she loves. But Ven has a single task: to find the best possible candidate to protect the people of Aratay. He did it once when he discovered Daleina, and he’s certain he’s done it again. Yet for all his appeals to duty, Naelin is a mother, and she knows her duty is to her children first and foremost. Only as the Queen’s power begins to wane and the spirits become emboldened—even as ominous rumors trickle down from the north—does she realize that the best way to keep her son and daughter safe is to risk everything. Sarah Beth Durst established a place of dark wonder in The Queen of Blood, and now the stakes are even higher as the threat to the Queen and her people grows both from within and beyond the borders of Aratay in this riveting second novel of the Queens of Renthia series.

The battle between vicious spirits and strong-willed queens that started in the award-winning The Queen of Blood and continued in the powerful The Reluctant Queen comes to a stunning conclusion in The Queen of Sorrow, the final volume of Sarah Beth Durst’s Queens of Renthia trilogy. Queen Daleina has yearned to bring peace and prosperity to her beloved forest home—a hope that seemed doomed when neighboring forces invaded Aratay. Now, with the powerful Queen Naelin ruling by her side, Daleina believes that her dream of ushering in a new era can be realized, even in a land plagued by malevolent nature spirits who thirst for the end of human life. And then Naelin’s children are kidnapped by spirits. Nothing is more important to her than her family, and Naelin would rather watch the world burn than see her children harmed. Blaming the defeated Queen Merecot of Semo for the kidnapping, Naelin is ready to start a war—and has the power to do it. But Merecot has grander plans than a bloody battle with her southern neighbors. Taking the children is merely one step in a plot to change the future of all Renthia, either by ending the threat of spirits once and for all . . . or plunging the world into chaos.