so what will GHOST IN THE MASK be about?

Now that GHOST IN THE ASHES is out, a few people have asked 1.) when is the next book in the series, GHOST IN THE MASK, coming out, 2.) what will the book be about, and 3.) who will the point of view characters be?

Answers follow! Note that this has spoilers for GHOST IN THE ASHES.

1.) I’m going to start writing it in August, so hopefully it will come out by the end of September or October.

2.) Lord Corbould Maraeus (from GHOST IN THE STORM and GHOST IN THE STONE) has a master plan to crush New Kyre, and he’s convinced the Emperor to put it into motion. The Empire can’t defeat New Kyre on sea, and the city of New Kyre itself is too far away (with too much neutral territory in between), so the Empire can’t send an army to attack New Kyre.

What the Empire can do, however, is close its ports to Kyracian trade…and the Empire has quite a lot of ports. Additionally, the Empire can persuade other nations to close their ports to Kyracian trade, and New Kyre is utterly dependent on trade for its income. Since peace with Istarinmul came at the end of GHOST IN THE ASHES, the Empire has already persuaded Istarinmul to close the Starfall Straits to Kyracian ships, cutting off half of New Kyre’s trade income. If Lord Corbould can just convince the Anshani to stop selling grain to the Kyracians, New Kyre is going to be in big, big trouble…because New Kyre does not control enough arable land to feed itself. The Kyracians have the best navy in the world, but that does no good if there’s no silver to pay the rowers.

If Lord Corbould’s plan works, the Empire is going to strangle New Kyre, all without losing a single ship or Legionary. So all the efforts of the Ghosts are going into persuading, arranging, or coercing Anshani nobles into turning against the Kyracians.

And in the midst of all this upheaval, a strange and dangerous mystery drops into Caina’s lap.

Someone in Malarae is committing murders using an Dustblade, an extremely dangerous weapon that turns its victims to ash with a single touch. This is bad enough, but there’s only once place the killer could have found an Dustblade.

Caer Magia, once the capital of the Magisterium, now a haunted and accursed ruin. One hundred and fifty years before Caina’s time, the magi of the Magisterium ruled the Empire, fighting against both the Emperor and the Ghosts. To defeat their foes, the most powerful magi gathered in Caer Magia and cast a mighty spell to create a weapon of sufficient power to destroy all their enemies. Unfortunately, something went wrong, killing all the magi…and all of the one hundred thousand people living in Caer Magia.

And to this day, if anyone sets foot within the ruins of Caer Magia for more than a few moments, they drop dead for no discernible reason.

Which means someone got in Caer Magia long enough to obtain a Dustblade. That in turn means someone else could enter Caer Magia long enough to bring out something else. And that is very bad, because the magi left things far nastier than mere Dustblades within the walls of Caer Magia.

Since the bulk of the Ghosts’ efforts are going towards defeating New Kyre, Caina is sent to solve this mystery since there is no one else to do it…and there is no one better to handle it.

3.) Caina will be the main POV character, but Kylon of House Kardamnos will be back as a POV character. Additionally, Claudia Aberon will be a POV character for the first time.

-JM