Survivor of a combat school, the orphaned Bingmei belongs to a band of mercenaries employed by a local ruler. Now the nobleman, and collector of rare artefacts, has entrusted Bingmei and the skilled team with a treacherous assignment: brave the wilderness's dangers to retrieve the treasures of a lost palace buried in a glacier valley. But upsetting its tombs has a price.
Echion, emperor of the Grave Kingdom, ruler of darkness, Dragon of Night, has long been entombed. Now Bingmei has unwittingly awakened him and is answerable to a legendary prophecy. Destroying the dark lord before he reclaims the kingdoms of the living is her inherited mission. Killing Bingmei before she fulfils it is Echion's.
Thrust unprepared into the role of saviour, urged on by a renegade prince, and possessing a magic that is her destiny, Bingmei knows what she must do. But what must she risk to honour her ancestors? Bingmei's fateful choice is one that neither her friends nor her enemies can foretell, as Echion's dark war for control unfolds.
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[Bingmei awoke in the darkness before dawn to the sound of wind]***
(47North, 1 March 2020, 404 pages, ebook, copy from @AmazonKindle #AmazonFirstReads)
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I own a few of the author's books but have only managed to read one so far. This is the only title from February's #AmazonFirstReads that held my interest. I was indifferent to the others so was left with little choice but to read this. I liked the blurb. It intrigued me. I really like Oriental Mythology and legend so this appealed to me. I made the right choice in deciding to read this. The world building in this book is spot on. The landscape Bingmei travels through is full of strangeness and mystery and it's beautiful as well. A kingdom hidden under the ice. What's not to enjoy? Bingmei is a great character, quite the heroine, she messed up and awakens a monster and takes responsibility for stopping him instead of running away. I've pre-ordered the other two books in the series as I really want to know what happens.
