TALIA: the capital
ABASK: a small mountainous region, laid waste during the war between Calidor and Brigant, where the people are known for their ice-blue eyes Thelonius: Prince of Calidor; younger brother of King Aloysius of Brigant Lord Regan: Thelonius’s oldest friend March: servant to Prince Thelonius; Abask by birth; sixteen years old Holywell: works for Aloysius as a fixer, spy, killer; Abask by birth Julien: March’s older brother; now deceased PITORIA
A large, wealthy country known for its dancing, where men dye their hair to show their allegiances. The wissun is a white flower that grows wild throughout most of Pitoria.
TORNIA: the capital
THE NORTHERN PLATEAU: a cold, forbidden region where demons live CHARRON: a port town
WESTMOUTH: a port town
DORNAN: a market town
PRAVONT: a village on the edge of demon territory ROSSARB: a northern port town with a small castle LEYDALE: home to Lord Farrow
Arell: King of Pitoria Tzsayn: Arell’s son; Catherine’s fiancé; twenty-three years old Sir Rowland Hooper: the Brigantine ambassador to Pitoria Lord Farrow: a powerful lord who distrusts Catherine and all Brigantines Rafyon: one of the prince’s guard and most trusted of his men Geratan: a dancer
Gravell: a demon hunter
Tash: Gravell’s assistant; born in Illast; thirteen years old Erin Foss: a trader
Edyon: Erin’s son; a bastard; seventeen years old Madame Eruth: a fortune-teller ILLAST
A neighboring country of Pitoria, where women have more equality, being able to own property and businesses.
Valeria: Queen of Illast, many years ago
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing The Smoke Thieves has been a complex process that began a few years ago. It started with an idea—one of those ideas that gets you so excited that it’s vital that you tell someone immediately. In this case I stopped my car by the side of a country lane and rang my agent, Claire Wilson.
“Father and son—demon hunters,” I said.
“Love it!” she replied.
However, getting from the idea to a novel was far from straightforward and I struggled to develop the story. Eventually, I realized that I wasn’t that interested in demon hunters, but what I really wanted to do was to tell the story of two strong female characters. So the father and son morphed into a man and a girl—Gravell and Tash—and I developed the character of a princess who is privileged and yet also a second-class citizen because of her sex.
Catherine is a girl of intelligence, wit, and courage, who begins to realize her potential (in both senses of that phrase) as she grows up and assesses the men around her and wonders, how hard can it really be to rule? Her character was inspired in particular by two famous women—Elizabeth I of England and Catherine the Great of Russia—but also by all the examples of strong women I had grown up with. I was brought up in a family and educated in a school where women dominated in numbers, and where I was encouraged to work hard and believe I could achieve anything a man could (occasionally while doing it backward, as the old Ginger Rogers joke goes). My thanks to all those inspirational women in my family, my school, and my working life.
There have been a number of strong women and men who have helped me in the writing of this book. Thanks to my agent, Claire Wilson, and to my editor, Ben Horslen, who encouraged and supported me through the whole process, especially during the dark days when it was all getting too complicated and difficult. Thanks to all at Penguin Random House, including Tig Wallace in editorial, Ben Hughes in design (for his wonderful map and covers), Wendy Shakespeare, the most kind and supportive copy-editor ever, and the world’s best rights team. Thanks to everyone at Viking in the US and in particular to my editor, Leila Sales—a wonderful, strong female character if ever there was one! Huge thanks to my family and friends. And my heartfelt thanks to all the wonderful fans of the Half Bad series who have supported my writing, often made me smile, and occasionally brought me to tears of happiness.
And finally thanks to you for reading my book—it’s a lot easier to keep writing a book when you know that someone is going to read it.