A slave reaches for stars in the bright dark.

So begins a war for justice, love, and freedom. Alaina flees the wazir's rose perfume and court gardens to seek refuge with a Twilket prince of the mysterious sands. The wazir raises an army against Faisal's tents, revealing a traitor hidden in the Oasis of Oaths. Alaina may prove a pawn of intrigue, the greatest traitor, or a key to salvation. Or is she all three? For the wazir's reach is long. Every slave who runs must be caught.

Alaina holds disastrous choice within her forbidden love, martial skill, and one wiser than her heart. While her sister by hearth and salt sails for Britannia to free her from the sentence of death, Alaina puts down her quill and her healer's bag to take up the staff of war. If she can grow the skill to outwit a traitor, keep her prince alive, and rescue the people she has brought in reach of the wazir's vengeance, then she will be a true daughter of the sands.

In a timeless war between a Prince, his love, and his rival, one will die, one will rise, and one will change the sands forever.

In Lance and Quill Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl meets Mary Pearson's The Kiss of Deception, a perfect fantasy adventure for lovers of romance and YA.

Does a captivating tale unfolding in the vivid majesty of the Arabian desert translate into a book you can't put down?

Do you crave a novella of clean adventure that keeps you turning pages into the night?

Then get your copy of Lance and Quill

Excerpt:

Alaina shivered. Her battle to accept her weaknesses, her struggle to find her place in the world - he saw that? Burn him - no, no. But he did see too much.

That place she sought was not completely shaped, nor completely known. She wet her lips. "You could live with one who - who is a pawn of peace, not born of your sands, whom no other would have? You would have the - the heart of one who is spoiled?

"Do not call yourself so! I have Tae's word you are not touched. Even if you had been, it would not be to your blame. That rests on Ali Ben Aidon's head."

Alaina's face burned. She was a healer; she should not blush at such things. She smoothed the paper in her hand.

His voice lowered. "I would live with one who speaks truth, though it does not favor her. With one who picks battles that need fought, no matter how many lances oppose her. . . ."

"Battles ill fought, this morn," she said. "Right words at an ill moment and ill words at the right moment."

"You do not start a battle with me that you cannot win." He was laughing at her again.

"Unless I must." A smile tugged at her mouth.

"Yes." He stepped closer and whispered, "May no battle ever separate us long." His mouth came down on hers.

Thought fled in a warding fire of strength and understanding. The promise in his touch warmed her differently than any fire ever had. Could it be true . . .? She reached for him.

His hand folded around hers and he pulled back, leaving something hard and angular within her fingers. She held a brooch of black amber: a falcon, eyes, beak and wings detailed in silver.

Widespread wings.