GHOST IN THE MASK cover art and excerpt

Above is the cover art for GHOST IN THE MASK, designed by Clarissa Yeo.

And let’s have another excerpt!

“Among the Anshani, the Kingdom of the Rising Sun is regarded with fear and horror. For in ancient times, the great pharaohs and their necromancer-priests enslaved us, and held us as their thralls for countless generations.” He grimaced. “Only after the Bloodmaiden rose in wrath and threw down the great pharaohs, binding their spirits to scream forever upon the burning desert wind, were the Anshani people made free. Ever and always, the Anshani people will be the enemies of the Kingdom of the Rising Sun, for if old Maat were ever to arise anew…she would take her first vengeance upon Anshan.”

“The Bloodmaiden?” said Caina. Something scratched at the back of her mind. She had heard that term before.

“A figure of legend and myth,” said Anashir. “The stories differ…some say she was a sorceress of power who was spurned by the pharaoh, and so destroyed the Kingdom of the Rising Sun in vengeance. Or that the pharaoh slew her father, and she took her revenge. She appears in the tales of other nations as well…the Bringer of Dust, the Queen of Crows, the Moroaica.”

“In the version of the story I heard,” said Caina, trying to keep her voice calm, “the pharaoh’s men murdered her father and turned her into one of the Undying, to serve the pharaoh as a concubine for all eternity.”

And she knew it was the true version of the story because she had seen it in the Moroaica’s memories. 

-JM