The Twelve Kingdoms Skies of Dawn

About this book

In the Twelve Kingdoms, three girls, all about the same physical age but from backgrounds as diverse as can possibly be, set down arduous paths towards an ultimate convergence in the Kingdom of Kei. Shoukei, daughter of Chutatsu, the King of the northwestern kingdom of Hou, led a strictly sheltered life in the royal palace until her parents were struck down amidst claims of excessive harshness towards their people. Stripped of her position as princess and thrown into a cruel version of a commoner's life, she grows to hate Kei's new Glory-King because that girl has everything that Shoukei has lost. In the west-southwestern kingdom of Sai, Suzu is a kaikyaku (a person tossed into the Twelve Kingdoms from Hourai, aka Japan) who latched upon the first person she met who could speak her language and, in exchange for being made an oracle (which gave her effective immortality and, more importantly, the ability to communicate), suffered a hundred years of servitude at the hands of a merciless mistress. Upon hearing of the new Glory-King and that she is also a kaikyaku, Suzu assumes that this girl is the only one who can understand her, and so seeks to escape her conditions and meet her.And what of that new Glory-King? Though now officially installed as King, Yoko hardly has it much easier. Constant arguments from her Ministers and the disapproval she can sense from them and Keiki force her to appreciate that she knows too little to effectively govern and is starting to repeat her old approval-obsessed habits. In an effort to learn more about her own kingdom, she goes into seclusion to study under a wise teacher. When that teacher gets kidnapped, though, Yoko discovers that the kidnapping is just the tip of the iceberg; a rebellion is brewing in Wa province, and she has to face the ugly truth that the rebels may be in the right. In that chaos of dangerous events, the three girls eventually meet in a gathering that may decide not only their fates but that of the entire kingdom of Kei.