The Ninth Rain

Every few hundred years, the Jure’lia, the “worm people,” descend upon the land of Sarn, trying to make it their own. Their tactics are terrifying and horrible: they turn Sarnians into drones that murder and infect their own people; and they lay thick trails of translucent green, impermeable resin which traps everything, and everyone, in its path.

Every time the Jure’lia have come, Sarn has been saved by the Eborans, a long-lived species, some of whose members can recall the previous battles

Every few hundred years, the Jure’lia, the “worm people,” descend upon the land of Sarn, trying to make it their own. Their tactics are terrifying and horrible: they turn Sarnians into drones that murder and infect their own people; and they lay thick trails of translucent green, impermeable resin which traps everything, and everyone, in its path.

Every time the Jure’lia have come, Sarn has been saved by the Eborans, a long-lived species, some of whose members can recall the previous battles to save their world. The Eborans have been aided by their tree-god, Ygseril, and its gifts.

But Ygseril died with the Eighth Rain. And after hundreds of years without their god, the Eborans are dying too.

During a time of peace and safety (uncertain though its continuation may be), 40-something naturalist/explorer Lady Vincenza “Vintage” de Grazon has ditched her family’s grape-growing estate to travel the world, studying the artefacts left by the Jure’lia with her assistant/bodyguard, Tormalin, a hundreds-year-old (but ridiculously young and handsome) Eboran, and his trusty sword, the Ninth Rain.

Meanwhile, Noon, a young fell-witch who can create fire with her hands, is held in the Winnowry, a prison/factory where every woman who shares her curse is taken and forced to use her abilities to help manufacture a powerful drug. She’s told she’s an abomination, and sometimes she believes that’s true.