The Well of Prayers

by Anne Boles Levy

Published 9 August 2016
The follow-up to The Temple of Doubt, by the author who Jonathan Maberry called “a powerful new voice in teen fantasy fiction. . . . Expect great things!”

Hadara, now sixteen years old, is still recovering from the night she assisted the Azwans, mighty magi, in destroying a demon that fell from the stars. She has a new job as an apprentice healer and wants to put her past—and her doubts—behind her.

On the planet Kuldor and beyond, it is deemed a sin to doubt the god Nihil’s magic, and heresy to fail to worship him correctly. The Azwans, still on Hadara’s island home, have begun punishing disbelievers with a vengeance.

Hadara can’t shake her own skepticism, though, especially when she suspects that the demon they destroyed isn’t entirely gone. What if bits and pieces are, in fact, floating around inside her and maybe taking root? Since she stood at the altar that fateful night, she’s developed the ability to understand foreign tongues, among other odd talents she never had before. Had she perhaps swallowed some part of the dying demon? She suspects no one can answer that question for her, but she doesn’t trust anyone enough to ask it.

But then a temple guard who she once thought was dead comes back into her life and points her toward new truths and a new sense of purpose: somewhere in the murky jungles surrounding her city, another people beckon her and demand she fulfill the destiny foretold by the falling star.

The Temple of Doubt

by Anne Boles Levy

Published 4 August 2015
"Fiercely original with a capable and plucky heroine, The Temple of Doubt rips open a door to a fresh new fantasy world." Amalie Howard, author of the Aquarathi series and Alpha Goddess

It's been two six-days since a falling star crashed into the marshes beyond Port Sapphire, putting the wilds of Kuldor off-limits to fifteen-year-old Hadara. She feels this loss deeply and is eager to join her mother beyond the city limits to gather illegal herbs and throw off the yoke of her tedious religious schooling. Medicines of any sort are heresy to the people of Port Sapphire, who must rely on magic provided by the god Nihil for aid. And if people die from that magic, their own lack of faith is surely to blame. At least, that's what Hadara has been taught and has so far refused to believe.

Hadara and her mother have ignored the priests' many warnings about their herb gathering, secure in knowing their tropical island is far from Nihil's critical gaze. Then two powerful high priests arrive from Nihil's home city to investigate the fallen star, insisting it harbors an unseen demon. This sets off speculation that an evil force is already at work in Port Sapphire and brings one of the holy men to Hadara's doorstep. When he chooses Hadara as a guide into the wilds, she sets off a chain of events that will upend everything she's been taught about the sacred and the profane.

The Temple of Doubt is the first installment in a series that follows a teenager who is given a greater destiny and purpose than she could've ever imagined.

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