2 After he married his bold Queen Genya the General in 125 AE, many began to refer to this period as the Reign of the General.
3 So called because Aryk was Bellonya’s youngest brother, fourth in line for the throne, and only ascended because his older brother and both her daughters predeceased her.
4 Neither princess was officially crowned, but both were referred to as queens before their deaths in the Blood War.
GLOSSARY
GODS
Axura5:
Goddess of the sun and daylight, as well as life, symbolized by the phoenix
Nox6:
Goddess of the moon and darkness, as well as death, symbolized by the strix
deathmaidens:
Servants of Nox, who lure lost souls into the dark realms
Miseriya:
Goddess of the poor and hopeless
Hael:
God of health and healing
Teyke:
God of luck, a trickster, symbolized by the cat
Mori:
God of knowledge and memory, symbolized by the owl
Anyanke:
Goddess of fate, symbolized by the spider
Soth:
The wicked south wind, likely originating from the now-extinct Lowland civilization
Nors:
The fair north wind, of similar origin to Soth, and still prayed to by the people of Arboria North
Eo:
An obscure goddess of unknown origin favored among traders and messengers
Xenith:
An alleged third sister of the ancient Pyraean pantheon of Axura and Nox
NOTABLE PEOPLE
Callysta:
Lover and second-in-command of Queen Nefyra. Callysta’s and Queen Nefyra’s phoenixes were also mates: Cirix, the first male phoenix, and Ignix, the first female phoenix.
Queen Genya the General:
Married to King Hellund the Just. Exiline was her phoenix. Successfully defeated the brigands that terrorized her husband’s reign.
The Five Brides:
Queen Elysia and her four royal sisters (Anya, Rylia, Cara, Darya). They helped secure peace treaties during the founding of the empire through marriage alliances.
The First Riders:
Fourteen female warriors chosen by Axura to fight against Nox’s darkness.
King Rol of Rolland:
Ancestor to Rolan of Stel and originally called Rol the Unruly, he earned fame—and the nickname Rol the Betrayer—for his famed assassination attempt against Ferronese King Damian.
Rolan of Stel:
Governor of Ferro, responsible for the attack on Azurec’s Eyrie
Councilor Halton of Stel:
Rolan’s father
Lania of Stel:
Wife of King Aryk Ashfire, mother of Pheronia Ashfire, Queen Regent of the Golden Empire
FAMOUS BATTLES
Dark Days:
The dawn of time, when Axura’s phoenixes battled Nox’s strixes, saving the world from endless night
Lowland Invasion:
Attempted invasion of Pyrmont (then the entirety of the Pyraean Queendom) by an unnamed civilization living in modern Pyra’s Foothills
Stellan Uprising:
A series of lords who banded together in Stel, attempting to wrest several major cities from empire control, eventually defeated by Avalkyra Ashfire
Blood War:
The conflict between opposing heirs and sisters Avalkyra and Pheronia Ashfire
Last Battle:
Fought in Aura Nova, final conflict of the Blood War
COMMON TERMS
animage:
A person who has animal magic
shadowmage:
A person who has shadow magic
Red Horde:
The first-ever gathering of the entirety of Pyra’s Phoenix Riders, under Queen Lyra’s reign
False Sisters/Shadow Twins:
Siblings born mere moments apart by the same father and two different mothers
Mercies:
Phoenix Riders that checked battlefields for survivors and resurrections
Shadowheart:
Spymaster, position in ancient Pyra in service to the queen
magetax:
Tax charged to animages for the use of their magic
magical registry:
Record of known animages in the Golden Empire
bondservant:
An animage working off a criminal debt to the empire
mageslave:
A derogatory term for a bondservant
dark realms:
The endless black abyss where lost souls wander for eternity
Soth’s Fury:
A series of caves near Azurec’s Eyrie, named after the south wind and currently in use as a Phoenix Rider training course
Silverwood:
A stretch of forest near the eastern Pyraean Foothills featuring taller, straighter trees likely brought to the region by settlers from Arboria North
Prosperity outpost:
Originally built by Queen Lyra the Defender during the Lowland Invasion and updated and heavily expanded by Ellody during her Reign of Prosperity
Copper Hill:
A once-thinking mining community on the outskirts of Ferro, now home to warehouses, processing facilities, and an abandoned outpost-turned-prison
Shadow Blooms:
A spiky black flower that grows only on the upper reaches of Pyrmont, also commonly called “Deathmaidens” after the servants of Nox
PYRAEAN TERMS
aeti:
Yes, affirmative
Aura:
City/place of gold, and the ancient capital of Pyra
Aurys:
River of gold, which flows from Pyrmont’s highest peaks down into the valley of the Golden Empire
diyu ma:
“Long time,” an expression or greeting
impyr:
Term of endearment translating to “little fire,” originating in a Pyraean song
maiora:
Grandmother
pyr:
Fire or flame
Pyra:
City/place of fire; also known as the Freelands, an emancipated province of the Golden Empire
pyraflora:
Fire Blossom, a tree with red flowers symbolic of Pyra. Petals can be made into poison, and sap is used for fireproofing.
phoenixaeris (s); phoenixaeres (pl):
Phoenix Rider or Phoenix Master
phoenixami:
“Phoenix friend,” usually meant to indicate apprentices or young, untested Riders, and carried with it the hint of derision or condescension
phoenovo:
Phoenix egg
petravin:
Rockwine, a distilled Pyraean liquor aged with a blend of local herbs and flowers, made only in the small village of Petratec
sapona:
Soaptree, plant used to bathe with
Sekveia:
The Second Road, an ancient route through the wilds of Pyrmont that supposedly leads to lost treasure
stellaflora:
Pale white Star Flowers used to commemorate the dead
trivol:
A three-Rider arrowhead flight pattern xe: Prefix meaning “sweet” or “dear”; can also mean “brother” or “sister,” based on the gender of the name it’s paired with.
xe xie:
Generic term of endearment translating to “sweet” or “dear” (xe) “one” (xie)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TERMS
sia:
Yes, affirmative in dialect of Arboria North
verro:
Yes, affirmative in Ferronese
5 “Azurec” in the Trader’s Tongue
6 “Noct” in the Trader’s Tongue
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank the usual suspects: my family, my friends—all the people in my life who have accepted that I will fall off the edge of the earth for days (weeks… months) at a time, will miss birthday parties and holidays and fun nights out, but love me anyway and support me on this path I’ve chosen with enthusiasm and open hearts.
Thank you to Sarah McCabe, my editor, who helped me wrangle this gigantic book into submission. You have been an invaluable guide throughout this entire, terrifying process, and I’m thrilled we get to do another book together to finish out this series.
Thank you to Penny Moore, my agent and ally, who fights constantly for her clients and has made this dream of mine a reality.
Shout-out to the whole team at Aevitas Creative Management, and thank you to Sandy Hodgman, who has helped Crown of Feathers find readers all over the globe.
Thank you to everyone at Simon & Schuster US and Canada, who have done so much for me and my books. Your support has made many of my authorly dreams come true, and I’ve only just begun.
And finally: Thank you to the readers, bloggers, bookstagrammers, reviewers, librarians, booksellers… everyone who has taken the time to gush and shout and recommend Crown of Feathers—I can’t thank you enough for your support and the endlessly incredible feeling that there are people out there who get it… who get me and this book and this story I’ve tried to tell. I love you all.
More from this Series
Crown of Feathers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NICKI PAU PRETO is a young adult fantasy author living just outside Toronto, Canada. After getting a degree in visual arts, a master’s in art history, and a diploma in graphic design, Nicki discovered two things: She loved to escape the real world, and she wasn’t interested in a regular nine-to-five life. Luckily, her chosen career covers both.
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ALSO BY NICKI PAU PRETO
Crown of Feathers
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Jacket designed by Tiara Iandiorio
Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia
Series designed by Sarah Creech
Author photograph by Megan Ewing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pau Preto, Nicki, author.
Title: Heart of flames / by Nicki Pau Preto.
Description: First Simon Pulse hardcover edition. | New York : Simon Pulse, 2020. | Series: Crown of feathers | Summary: “Veronyka, Tristan, and Sev must stop the advancing empire from destroying the Phoenix Riders”—Provided by publisher.