Beneath a Sacred Sky

Everyone knows of Elijah Manak`ne Criss, the feverish boy and his legendary flight. But few know that the tale began with his fierce sister, Neela, and a horse named after the night.

The first in a planned duology, Beneath a Sacred Sky tells the story of Neela, who has always lived on the edge of belonging. Growing up in Rivergrove, a poor village within a wealthy kingdom, she and her family are treated as outsiders despite her father’s renown as a horse breeder. Not only do townsfolk malign her parents’ rejection of local customs, and her uncle’s traditional healing, but actually fear her strange and beloved little brother, Eli, a baby born with dust on his feet.

Despite reports of raiders attacking nearby villages, a more urgent threat looms over Neela's world: the Winged Ones, the near-mythical winged horses believed to be carriers of a deadly disease. After the Criss’ own weanlings are stricken with bone fever, it seems the only recourse is to cull them all, including her dear filly, Nightbird. But at Eli’s urging, Neela leaves home to save that which she loves, encountering far more than she bargained for, including the one hope standing between Rivergrove and bloodshed...

Told in imaginative, folkloric prose, Beneath a Sacred Sky is a gentle coming-of-age tale steeped in myth and magic, an expansive, evocative story about family, courage, and the stories we choose to believe.