Book 3 of SANCTUM is now out on Amazon and Kobo!
There is so much in this installment of the SANCTUM series that I feel full and so, so ready to have this out into the world. One of my early reviewers wrote on Goodreads, “This story gets more intense and messed up with every book. I could hardly put it down and can’t wait for the next story in this universe.”
What I loved about writing this book was the intensity. Ellisandre, Sevastyan, Rei, and Lisa do not mince words, hold back, or feel anything on merely the surface. They go there. In situations where everything is a risk, they take the risks, and hold on to each other while doing it.
There have been times in my life where everything hurt, where nothing felt right or safe, but there was that person or two right there in it with me. You don’t forget that. You never forget that.
Many years ago, I moved to a Mainland China for a year with almost no money to study at Nanjing University. When I landed at the airport in Shanghai with my very poor Putonghau (Mandarin), I had a lot of difficulty communicating. There was no one waiting for me, since my university was more than seven hours away by car, at least, in Nanjing. All I had was the information third hand of a night bus that would leave soon for my city.
I did finally make it on the bus. No food. No water. Then in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, I was told to get onto another bus, this one with the windows held together with wires and people sitting on the floor, and everything creaking. We were on highways and roads made of dirt and people kept getting on and off on the side of the road with no bus stop in sight. I didn’t know where I was. Eventually, a young woman got on who spoke a tiny bit of English and understood my broken Mandarin and I found out I was still going the right direction. Even so, in the midde of the night, the bus stopped and everyone was ordered off. It was just a parking lot behind a store. No signs in any language. Someone was taking my suitcase to a taxi. I ended up in a building that was actively under serious construction, in a hotel room that did not look like it was actively doing business. At least not legal business. They didn’t check my passport, so I later learned, it was very not legal.
Someone opened the lock on my door and tried to come in an hour later. I only kept them out by throwing myself against the door. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep. I didn’t even know what city I was in. There was no water safe to drink. I’d been warned not to even think of consuming tap water.
When it was light. I hauled my one suitecase and backpack down the stairs and out into the early morning street. Dragged myself over to a taxi driver and asked him what city I was in.
The man looked at me like I was insane. He told me I was in Nanjing. I was so happy. I had the right city. I gave him the cross streets for the foreign student center at the university and he said he could get me there, though I was on the wrong side of the city. I would have been pleased if he just got me to the school. It was a city of nine million people at the time.
I still hadn’t drank a sip of water or eaten anything since the plane across the Pacific Ocean. The taxi driver got me to the university. We only haggled a little on him trying to over charge me. I arrived, checked in. Everyone was pushing this way and that. I was sent up to a temporary dorm room. I must have looked like a ghost by then but no one asked if I was okay.
There was a woman in the dorm already, because it was two beds. She had golden hair and comfortable traveling clothes. Beyond that, I couldn’t have told you anything. I was too far gone. I remember she took one look at me and told me to sit down. She gave me water, told me it was safe, and ordered me to drink. Then she took me across the alley to a simple food place, and ordered cheap, filling food and I had my first meal.
About twenty minutes in, many cups of tea later, I looked up at her and said, “I don’t know your name.”
And she laughed.
She didn’t know my name either. But she recognized the look. She had an idea of what I’d been through without me even saying.
Years later, the memory of her handing me water still makes me choke up.
In Forge the Blade there is a lot of metaphorical riding a rattling bus into the dark, not knowing where you are going or if you’re going to be left alone on the side of the road in the dark, in a country where you barely speak the language. And there’s a lot of handing water.
Forge the Blade is available now on Amazon and Kobo. If you would like to get if from me directly, please email me at ciaradarren@gmail.com. Due to the honesty of the story, the book remains banned by the distributer I use to reach most other stores. I will be setting up more easy to use direct buying options over the next few months.
Ciara Darren 