The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

When seventeen-year-old boy-king Benedict Castor rides to Aisling Cathedral high on its Tor, he and his knights are watched by six shrouded women, the cathedral’s diviners. Eager for a bit of excitement they watch as the knights pass by, begging the girls for kisses. The king has come for a divination and one of them will have to taste his blood then drown in the sacred spring to dream the omens of the king’s future before being revived. Known only by their numbers, it is Six who draws the short straw but before making her way to the cathedral she encounters one of the knights, Roderick Myndacious, unfriendly and disrespectful, yet, as she observes later, “sickeningly handsome”. Along the approach to the cathedral five limestone statues hold five items representing the magical omens of the five settlements in the Stonewater Kingdom. There is a coin, an inkwell, an oar, a chime and a loomstone. Other than the abbess the only other inhabitants of the cathedral are the gargoyles, batlike sprites, carved from stone which care for the cathedral.  The king’s divination showed only bad omens but unperturbed, he and his knights stay at the cathedral hostel and the other girls are happy to lay with the knights while six, in spite of smoking some of Roderick’s intoxicating idleweed, discovers they have stolen some of the spring water. In exchange for keeping their secret the knights take the diviners to the village for a bit of fun. Nearing the end of their ten-year service to the cathedral, the girls are keen to see more of life but things are more complex than they seem. The girls start to go missing and the true quest of the king and his knights is revealed, somehow tied up with the diviners disappearance and to find out what has happened, Six must go with them.

A classic gothic fantasy romance, this has it all with a simmering sexual tension maintained to the point where they are ripping one another’s armor off! There is a great, strong female characters in Maud the knight, and the gargoyle that calls everyone Bartholemew has some fun malapropisms to lighten the story. With sprites, omens and a quest for magical objects it seems a bit formulaic, and the map at the front with the five villages making up a whole kingdom looks more like a board game, but it is an entertaining read. The cover art brilliantly captures the feel of the book, what you see is what you get, don’t expect too much more.

Themes: Fantasy Gothic romance, Quest, Magic.

Sue Speck