CE 994: Queen Sahar of Yscalin dies, leaving Princess Marosa Vetalda as the sole heir of King Sigoso
CE 995: Queen Sabran’s minority ends. Niclays Roos becomes her court alchemist
CE 997: Ead Duryan arrives at court. Tané meets Susa.
CE 998: Niclays Roos is banished from court to the Mentish outpost of Orisima in Cape Hisan
CE 1000: The celebration of 1,000 years of Berethnet rule
CE 1003: Truyde utt Zeedeur arrives at the Inysh court. Fyredel wakes beneath Mount Fruma and seizes control of Cárscaro. Under his orders, Yscalin declares allegiance to the Nameless One
CE 1005: The Priory of the Orange Tree begins. Tané is nineteen, Ead is twenty-six, Loth is thirty, and Niclays is sixty-four
Acknowledgments
The Priory of the Orange Tree is my longest published book and has taken more than three years to finish. I wrote its first words in April 2015 and edited it for the last time in June 2018. When you go on a quest like that, you need an army to help you reach the end.
To you, my readers, for stepping into this world with me. Without you, I’m just a girl with a skullful of curious ideas. Remember that whoever and wherever you are, the realm of adventure will never be closed to you. You are your own shield.
To my agent, David Godwin, who believed in Priory as much as he believed in The Bone Season and is always there to reassure and support me. To Heather Godwin, Kirsty McLachlan, Lisette Verhagen, Philippa Sitters, and the rest of DGA for continuing to be fantastic.
To my Holy Retinue of editors: Alexa von Hirschberg, Callum Kenny, Genevieve Herr, and Marigold Atkey. You’ve each been extraordinary in drawing out the best in Priory. Thank you so much for your patience, wisdom, and commitment, and for understanding everything I wanted to achieve with this story.
To the worldwide team at Bloomsbury: Alexandra Pringle, Amanda Shipp, Ben Turner, Carrie Hsieh, Cesca Hopwood, Cindy Loh, Cristina Gilbert, Francesca Sturiale, Genevieve Nelsson, Hermione Davis, Imogen Denny, Jack Birch, Janet Aspey, Jasmine Horsey, Josh Moorby, Kathleen Farrar, Laura Keefe, Laura Phillips, Lea Beresford, Marie Coolman, Meenakshi Singh, Nancy Miller, Sarah Knight, Phil Beresford, Nicole Jarvis, Philippa Cotton, Sara Mercurio, Tram-Anh Doan, and everyone else—thank you for continuing to publish the outpourings of my peculiar imagination. It remains such a privilege and a dream to work with you.
To David Mann and Ivan Belikov, the talents behind the magnificent jacket. Thank you both for your attention to detail, for capturing the essence of the story so well, and for listening so readily to my suggestions.
To Lin Vasey, Sarah-Jane Forder and Veronica Lyons, who went pearl-diving into this sea of a book for all the things I’d missed.
To Emily Faccini for the maps and illustrations that have made Priory such a thing of beauty.
To Katherine Webber, Lisa Lueddecke, and Melinda Salisbury—I vividly remember you telling me to just hurry up and show you this dragon book I kept making enigmatic comments about. Your fierce encouragement and relentless enthusiasm for Priory fueled me to keep going for months, and then years. It would have taken me far longer to finish if I hadn’t known you were there, waiting for the next part. Thank you. I love you.
To Alwyn Hamilton, Laure Eve and Nina Douglas, my West London squad. Thank you for all the coffee, laughs, and procrastination writing days, and for giving me the willpower to climb the never-ending mountain of structural edits on my laptop.
To the wonderful people—among them Dhonielle Clayton, Kevin Tsang, Molly Night, Natasha Pulley, and Tammi Gill—who gave me feedback on and assistance with various aspects of Priory. Thank you for your insight and generosity.
To Claire Donnelly, Ilana Fernandes-Lassman, John Moore, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Krystal Sutherland, Laini Taylor, Leiana Leatutufu, Victoria Aveyard, Richard Smith, and Vickie Morrish, who have all been incredible friends and supporters.
To Doctor Sian Gr?nlie, who introduced me to Old English and sparked my interest in etymology.
To all fans of my ongoing Bone Season series, including the ever-incredible advocates—thank you for being so patient while I was elsewhere, and for joining me on a new journey.
To booksellers, librarians, reviewers and bloggers on all platforms, my fellow authors, and bookwyrms in general. I am so proud and lucky to be a member of this big-hearted community.
Priory contests, incorporates, reimagines, and/or was influenced by elements of a number of myths, legends, and historical works of fiction, including the tale of Hohodemi as told in Kojiki and Nihongi, The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, and various versions of Saint George and the Dragon, including those in The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, The Renowned History of the Seven Champions of Christendom by Richard Johnson, and the Codex Romanus Angelicus.
I owe a significant debt of inspiration to true events and situations of the past. I am deeply grateful to the historians and linguists whose publications helped me decide how to weave these events into Priory, how to construct its world, and how best to name its places and characters. The British Library provided me with access to many of the texts I required during my research. We must never underestimate the value of libraries, or the urgency of the need to protect them, in a world that often appears to forget the importance of stories.
My final acknowledgment is for my incredible family, especially to my mum, Amanda Jones—my best friend—who inspired me to build this world as high as it was wide.