by Amy Butler Greenfield
288 pages
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: May 19th, 2015
The sea is coming. We are coming. And we will drown you all.
With a song, Lucy can control the wind and the water; she can bring castles and kingdoms to their feet. Since Lucy mastered her powers, King Henry has kept her close as he’s rebuilt England. She’s his best ally—and his workhorse. And now he’s called her to investigate attempted murder: His men claim they were almost killed on the Thames…by a mermaid. All Lucy can glean from the creature they’ve captured is a warning: The sea is coming. We are coming. And we will drown you all.
And then the floods begin. Swaths of London are submerged as the people scramble to defend themselves against the water—and the monsters—that are flooding their streets. As mistrust of Lucy's magic grows, the king relies on Nat, Lucy's great love, to guide them through the storm. But Nat is cold and distant to Lucy. He swore his love only a year before, and now he calls her “stranger.”
Lucy is determined to defeat this powerful new magic alone if she must. But then she hears an eerie song within the water…can it mean that she’s not the last Chantress after all?
Sweepingly romantic and crackling with magic, Chantress Fury triumphantly concludes the powerful Chantress trilogy.
I looked at the mermaid, and she looked at me—and I gave myself over to listening.
At first I only heard the water in the barrel, and its vexation at being contained. Round and round it went, an endless circling melody. But then I caught a glimmer of something else: A chilling music that told me that something in the barrel felt hunted; something felt afraid. And it wasn’t the water.
Frustrated, I wrapped my fingers around the edge of the barrel. She was right there in front of me, but I couldn’t reach her, and I didn’t dare touch her, not when she was so frightened already....
The water in the barrel bobbled. As it washed over my fingertips, a wave of feeling washed over me, too: a bath of remorse so strong that it made me pull my hand from the water in shock.
The mermaid was sorry?
With a twist of her fins, she broke the surface again. Liquid streamed from her hair, and down over her skin. It took me a few moments to see that it wasn’t just seawater, but tears.
I touched the water again, and again the tide of remorse washed over me—remorse and pain and fear.
She hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone. I knew that now, without a doubt. And I knew something else, too: She was dying.
The gag wasn’t just cutting into her skin, and it wasn’t just stopping her from singing. It was suffocating her. The wadding had wound around her tongue, and now it was trailing down her throat, a little farther with every swallow…
Her panic felt like mine.
Published May 7th 2013 by Margaret K. McElderry
“Sing, and the darkness will find you.”
This warning has haunted fifteen-year-old Lucy ever since she was eight and shipwrecked on a lonely island. Lucy’s guardian, Norrie, has lots of rules, but the most important is that Lucy must never sing. Not ever. Now it is 1667, Lucy is fifteen, and on All Hallows’ Eve, Lucy hears a tantalizing melody on the wind. She can’t help but sing—and she is swept into darkness.
When she awakes in England, Lucy hears powerful men discussing Chantresses—women who can sing magic into the world. They are hunting her, but she escapes and finds sanctuary with the Invisible College, an organization plotting to overthrow the nefarious Lord Protector. The only person powerful enough to bring about his downfall is a Chantress. And Lucy is the last one in England.
Lucy struggles to master the song-spells and harness her power, but the Lord Protector is moving quickly. And her feelings for Nat, an Invisible College apprentice and scientist who deeply distrusts her magic, only add to her confusion…
Time is running out, and the fate of England hangs in the balance in this entrancing novel that is atmospheric and lyrical, dangerous and romantic.
Published May 6th 2014 by Margaret K McElderry Books
Lucy is the last Chantress, the only remaining girl who can sing magic into the world. Since she defeated the evil Lord Scargrave, England has changed - and not for the better. With crops failing and the people rebelling, Lucy is called urgently back to King Henry's court. His Inner Council is convinced that making gold through alchemy will save England. But a critical element to the alchemical process has been stolen. Lucy is tasked with finding it with her magic... or else. And until she succeeds, the castle is on lockdown.
Court too has changed. Scargrave's brutal Chantress-hunter has become King Henry's closest advisor. Lucy's beloved Nat has fallen out of favor and is shunned by his colleagues. Their romance means trouble for both of them. Worst of all, something goes wrong with Lucy's magic. The palace is a labyrinth, and there’s a monster at its heart - a monster who may have the power to defeat Lucy once and for all.
Amy Butler Greenfield returns to the beguiling world of Chantress for a suspenseful tale of courtly intrigue, music, and magic in Chantress Alchemy.
Amy grew up in the Adirondack Mountains and later studied history at Williams College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Oxford. She now lives with her family in England, where she writes, bakes double-dark-chocolate cake, and plots mischief.
