Song of Silver, Flame Like Night (Song of the Last Kingdom, #1)

by Amélie Wen Zhao

But in rare moments like this, when the sun hung ripe and swollen as a mandarin over the glittering sea, there was still a shattered-glass beauty to be found in the remnants of a conquered land.

The interior was dim, dust motes swirling in the late-afternoon sunlight that spilled onto cracked floorboards and shelves crammed with an assortment of scrolls, tomes, and trinkets. The entire shop looked like an old painting left to fade in the sun, smelling of ink and damp wood. But this was Lan’s favorite place in the world. It reminded her of a time long past, a world long gone.

“There are old gods and new gods, kind gods and fickle gods—and most powerful of them all are the Four Demon Gods.”

Long ago, the Heavens split Like teardrops, its fragments fell to the ground A piece of the sun bloomed into the Crimson Phoenix A slice of the moon turned into the Silver Dragon A shard of the stars gathered into the Azure Tiger A splinter of the night became the Black Tortoise