'When Sir Harrance ‘Harry’ Larksdale, bastard brother of the king, falls for a mysterious lad from the mountains, he is unwillingly caught up in a chaotic world of court intrigue and murderous folk tales. Meanwhile Queen Carmotta Il’Lunadella, First-Queen of the Brintland, needs to save her life and her unborn child. With the Third-Queen plotting against her, and rumours of coups rocking the court, Carmotta can rely only on her devious mind and venomous wit.
'But deep within the walls of Becken Keep squats the keep-within – patient, timeless, and evil. To speak of the keep-within outside the walls of Becken Keep guarantees your bizarre and agonising demise within nine days. All the while, people fearfully whisper the name Red Marie: a bloodied demon with rusted nails for teeth and swinging scythes who preys on the innocent.
'Harry and Carmotta are clinging to their dreams, their lives, by threads. And, beneath all, the keep-within awaits.'
Last year author J.L. Worrad released the fantasy novel Pennyblade, which married together a world that didn't feel hugely far removed from our own history, and a world of magic, and feline elves. Whilst the first book set within this world focused on these beings, the Commrach, this time round Worrad is taking a much more human approach as we focus on the realm of Brintland, diving deep into the political conflicts and double dealings within the aristocracy.
The Keep Within tells the story of the Brintland royal family, focusing on several key individuals. The story revolves around the current King, Ean, his wives Carmotta and Emmabelle, and a couple of the King's bastard brothers, Osrin, and Harry Larksdale. Larksdale is one of our main protagonists for the book, and we follow the story from his point of view for a good portion of it. Harry has grown up with a love of the arts and story telling, and runs a well respected theatre in the city. He has plans to be more than just a theatre manager, however, and is aiming to have himself named the next Master of Arts and Revels by the King. To this end, he does his best to keep the King happy, providing him with any women he wants, and various intoxicants for the high court parties.
Carmotta, the first wife of the King, has a personal vendetta against Larksdale, and she sees his trying to work the King for his own ends as a threat to her own schemes. Secretly sleeping with her cousin, who's pretending to the court that he's gay, she's become pregnant. Unfortunately, King Ean hasn't slept with her since they lost their first child, and is instead doting on his new, pregnant, wife Emmabelle. Now Carmotta has to figure out a plan to get the King to sleep with her, so that she can pass of her bastard baby as his, saving her life.
Whilst all of this is happening, there are members of the court who are carefully moving into position in order to stage a coup against the King in order to take the crown for their own. Not only this, but there's also a secret hidden deep inside Bechen Keep, the Keep Within. A dark, ancient, magical structure hidden beneath the castle, anyone who speaks of its existence outside the keep died ten days later under bizarre, often violent ends. Forces are preparing to use the power of the Keep within to their own ends, and as such several outside forces have been drawn to Bechen Keep. There's a young man with a dark crown, a mountain woman with a magical voice, and the figure of myth and horror, Red Marie. As all of these forces and secret plots converge on Bechen Keep at the same time they begin to intersect with each other, and the fate of perhaps the entire kingdom will rest on the outcome.
‘Stop following me.’
‘I am your bodyguard.’
They were striding through the underworld once more, the keep’s distended guts, making their way along the tunnels that led to the hollow. She would rather have been doing so alone.
‘What enemies lurk down here?’ Carmotta said.
‘A bodyguard guards a body,’ Dulenci replied. ‘And, frankly my love, you are your own body’s enemy. Let’s turn back. You have not slept, woman.’
She did not reply. That might mean looking at him. He had the hand of night above his head.
They all did, bar one soul: Ean’s whore, Arriet, of all people. There seemed no logic to the matter. That dark and transparent hand, skeleton-thin and clawed of nail, hovered over the skull of everyone else she knew, including herself. The hands would not go away. Carmotta had the feeling that even if they should disappear they would still be there, unseen. That they had always been there and always would. She had merely learned to see them.
Or she might just be insane.
‘Carmotta.’ He grabbed her shoulder and she stopped for fear he might turn her around to face him.
‘What?’ she said, staring at a dripping wall.
‘Why come here?’ he said. ‘You keep coming here.’
‘For answers,’ she replied. Which was true. ‘For this babe inside me.’ Which was not. ‘You think I come here for leisure?’
Dulenci paused. ‘You have enormous tastes. One might say insatiable.’ He drew a long breath. ‘I accept you must be the king’s, but… I could never accept him.’
He meant the commrach, the Explainer.
Laughter overtook her, a hysterical ecstasy.
‘What?’ he said.
‘You astoundingly stupid bastard.’
He spun her to face him, and as he leaned toward her the hand above his scalp flexed.
She yelped, pulled from him. ‘Keep away!’
‘What’s got into you?’ he demanded. ‘You’ve become so cold to me. I cannot live without your love. I cannot.’
Trust a man to make her mental collapse all about him. She reached out and held his wrists.
‘If you loved me, you would trust me,’ she told him.
‘Look at me, Carmotta,’ Dulenci said.
She shook her head.
‘Why not?’ he said.
Why not indeed? She could not maintain all this avoidance of everyone. She was first-queen of the Brintland, daughter of House Il’Lunadella. Her whole life she had met people eye-to-eye.
She did so now. They were still her lover’s eyes, yet black ethereal talons hovered inches above them.
‘Kiss me,’ he whispered.
No…
She took him by the chin and planted a kiss upon his lips, then stepped away. The hand had not moved, a slumbering spider. She wondered if the hand above her own head was also still.
‘I love you,’ he said. ‘Always.’
‘Why don’t you go back up?’ she said. ‘I need someone to take care of the cage situation.’ By which she meant the mountain woman who had escaped from it.
He shrugged. ‘Come now, she’s probably long left the keep. Even if they caught her, well, what could a tongueless savage tell anyone?’
‘What of the man?’ she asked.
‘Man?’
‘The dead man,’ she said. ‘He had an eyeball in his arse. Surely that left an impression on you …’
(Three Nights Till Yulenight Eve, Carmotta – pp. 398-401)
Pennyblade introduced readers to this world, and took us from location to location on a journey that would cover both the human world and that of the Commrach. It felt like a big book. The Keep Within feels a lot bigger. Part of this is down to the fact that the book is a little longer, clocking in with an extra hundred pages or so, but it's also down to the court politics, the scheming, and the tight focus on characters. The story is might more focused this time round, with the vast majority of it being set within Bechen Keep, or the surrounding city. It's dealing with personal dramas, and for the most part it's about the people that live there rather than some big, world ending thing. But despite that smaller scale focus the book feels like it's giving us a wider view of the world. Perhaps this is down to the fact that we're focusing on those who run the kingdom, of the people in charge, and it gives us an idea of how that world works. The book also shows us what those at the very bottom of society deal with too, and despite only taking place in one location, it gives a more expansive view of how this particular societal structure stacks up.
The Keep Within is a political thriller first and foremost, compared to the adventure story of the first book. This change in tone and style works to the benefit of the book, giving readers something hugely different to what came before. There's a different kind of tension this time round, and the threat isn't whether or not our heroes will be attacked on the road, or go down in a fight, but if they can out think and out manouver the other people vying to improve their positions in court. There's a lot of clever plot work going on here, and it's the kind of book where once everything is done you'll find yourself wanting to read through it again to see if you can see any hints that you missed the first time round; if any of the schemes revealed in the latter parts of the book were hinted at earlier on if you know what to look for.
There are some great characters in the book too, and each of the point of view characters brings something different into the mix. Larksdale is a bit of a fop, he's got schemes and plans, but they'e clearly just goals that he want to achieve in order to rise the ranks. At worst he's like an overly ambitious guy in the office. He's not out to kill anyone, he just wants a nice title and a raise. Carmotta on the other hand has a bit of an edge to her. She knows that if her plans fail and she can't get the King to sleep with her than she's likely dead. With that kind of pressure and stakes she's willing to go further and do worse to survive; which makes her a bit of a wildcard. Fwych, the powerful mountain woman, is something of an enigma in the sense that for the longest time the book reveals very little about her. She's one of the first characters we meet, and she has an important mission, and is willing to kill, but we never quite know if we should be rooting for her or fearing her. And then there's Red Marie. She's absolutely evil. She does some sick, twisted things to her victims, and is painted as one of the biggest villains of the book. But, things are never quite as simple as that, and Worrad does some incredibly interesting things with her.
The Keep Within is a wonderful sequel, one that sets itself in the same universe, but does it's own thing in every way imaginable. It builds upon what came before and expands the world, introducing some fantastic new ideas, some interesting new characters, and some questions that I really, really hope we get answers to someday. If you enjoyed the first book you're going to love this one.
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