Kushiel’s Dart Reading Group Guide

A nation born of angels, vast and intricate and surrounded by danger… a

woman born to servitude, unknowingly given access to the secrets of the

realm…

Born with a scarlet mote in her left eye, Phédre nó

Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child. When her bond is

purchased by an enigmatic nobleman, she is trained in history, theology,

politics, foreign languages, the arts of pleasure. And above all, the

ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Exquisite courtesan, talented

spy… and unlikely heroine. But when Phédre stumbles upon a plot that

threatens her homeland, Terre d’Ange, she has no choice.

Betrayed

into captivity in the barbarous northland of Skaldia and accompanied

only by a disdainful young warrior-priest, Phédre makes a harrowing

escape and an even more harrowing journey to return to her people and

deliver a warning of the impending invasion. And that proves only the

first step in a quest that will take her to the edge of despair and

beyond.

Phédre nó Delaunay is the woman who holds the keys to her

realm’s deadly secrets, and whose courage will decide the very future

of her world.

Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel’s Dart-a

massive tale about the violent death of an old age and the birth of a

new. It is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and

deeply laid conspiracies. A world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers,

deposed rulers and a besieged Queen, a warrior-priest, the Prince of

Travelers, barbarian warlords, heroic traitors, and a truly

Machiavellian villainess… all seen through the unflinching eyes of an

unforgettable heroine.