Mark Lawrence - Holy Sister

Harper Voyager

an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Copyright © Mark Lawrence 2019

Cover © Tomasz Jeduszek 2019

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

Mark Lawrence asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008152390

Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008152413

Version: 2020-02-20

For my grandfather, ‘Bill’ William George Cook, who lived most of his first decade under the reign of Queen Victoria and who with great patience helped me make my first treasure box

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

The Story So Far

Prologue

Chapter 1. Holy Class: Present Day

Chapter 2. Three years earlier: The Escape

Chapter 3. Holy Class: Present Day

Chapter 4. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 5. Holy Class: Present Day

Chapter 6. Holy Class: Present Day

Chapter 7. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 8. Holy Class: Present Day

Chapter 9. Present: Holy Class

Chapter 10. Holy Class

Chapter 11. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 12. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 13. Present: Holy Class

Chapter 14. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 15. Present: Holy Class

Chapter 16. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 17. Holy Class

Chapter 18. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 19. Present: Holy Class

Chapter 20. Holy Class

Chapter 21. Three Years Earlier: The Escape

Chapter 22. Present: Holy Class

Chapter 23. Holy Class

Chapter 24. Holy Class

Chapter 25. Holy Class

Chapter 26. Holy Class

Chapter 27. Holy Class

Chapter 28. Holy Class

Chapter 29. Holy Class

Chapter 30. Holy Class

Epilogue

Keep Reading …

Acknowledgements

Also by Mark Lawrence

About the Publisher

For those of you who have had to wait a while for this book I provide brief catch-up notes so that your memories may be refreshed and I can avoid the awkwardness of having to have characters tell each other things they already know for your benefit.

Here I carry forward only what is of importance to the tale that follows.

The people and places in the brief summary I start with are expanded on further down, so if it means nothing to you, skip the next paragraph then come back to it.

Grey Sister ended with Nona, around fifteen years old, escaping Sherzal’s palace with troops in pursuit. She had friends with her, including Zole, Ara, Regol, Abbess Glass and Sister Kettle, and assorted other survivors. Zole had the Noi-Guin’s shipheart, stolen from the assassins’ headquarters beneath the palace. Clera helped Nona escape but went back to Sherzal’s service. Nona’s enemy from the convent, the novice Joeli Namsis, was still in the palace and her actions led to the death of Nona’s friend Darla during the escape. Nona and her companions are in the mountains on the border with Scithrowl and a long way from the convent. The story does not begin with this scene but will return to it presently.