Sign of the Rooq
Taj Agera grew up among the renowned menders of Kezzor. Now he can’t even fix a cooking pot, much less the deeper rips in the fabric of the world—or his own heart. That became clear when his dad was murdered by an assassin. And when he and his mum were banished from their village in the aftermath.
There’s no way those things can be fixed. Mending anything that really matters is impossible. His life is in tatters.
Now, he and his mum are scraping out a living in the foreign city of Nakaimen. But there are two problems: The assassin isn’t done with them yet, and Taj’s impulse to mend things keeps triggering.
As the assassin’s intentions become clearer and the consequences of inaction more dire, Taj realizes he has to do something, even if all he can manage is the first tenet of mending.
If he succeeds, he’ll keep the assassin from killing again. And maybe he can prove to himself that mending is possible at the same time.
SIGN OF THE ROOQ is a 95,000-word YA fantasy novel. It combines the urban landscape and “found family” of Leigh Bardugo’s SIX OF CROWS with an interplay between magic and wounds a la UPROOTED by Naomi Novik.
Where is it in the publishing process?
I’m completing edits, planning one more beta reader round for the polish, and preparing to query agents.
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