The Secrets of Jin-Shei

The Secrets of Jin-Shei
Alma Alexander

A sweeping epic set in medieval China; it is the story of a group of women, the Jin-Shei sisterhood, who form a uniquely powerful circle that transcends class and social custom.They are bound together by a declaration of loyalty that transcends all other vows, even those with the gods, by their own secret language, passed from mother to daughter, by the knowledge that some of them will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to enable others to fulfil their destiny.The sisterhood we meet run from the Emperor's sister to the street-beggar, from the trainee warrior in the Emperor's Guard to the apprentice healer, from the artist to the traveller-girl, herself an illegitimate daughter of an emperor and seen as a threat to the throne. And as one of them becomes Dragon Empress, her determination to hold power against the sages of the temple, against the marauding forces from other kingdoms, drags the sisterhood into a dangerous world of court intrigue, plot and counterplot, and brings them into conflict with each other from which only the one who remains true to all the vows she made at the very beginning to the dying Princess Empress can rescue them.An amazing and unusual book, based on some historical fact, full of drama, adventure and conflict like a Shakespearean history play, it's a novel about kinship and a society of women, of mysticism, jealousy, fate, destiny, all set in the wonderful, swirling background of medieval China.

ALMA ALEXANDER

The Secrets of Jin-Shei

Copyright (#ulink_7805250a-5460-5403-8b01-033c83d84d95)

HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004

Copyright © Alma Alexander 2004

Alma Alexander asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work.

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.

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007163748

EPub Edition © JULY 2016 ISBN 9780007392063

Version: 2016-07-21

Dedication (#ulink_79b2d50b-daed-5cf9-a7b1-794f0cae428f)

to the women who shaped my life

my grandmother

for her unconditional love

my mother

for her sometimes deeply bewildered pride

and to my own jin-shei circle

(you know who you are)

for everything

Contents

Cover (#u5b8f1ced-a29c-54f4-a636-243d20ec4d88)

Title Page (#ufc7402f2-8e72-5242-b7fc-163b618ed4f3)

Dedication (#u8d35b8f8-bca3-5e3c-ab2c-178e31f29e01)

Part 1 (#u8d2495d8-b3fa-511c-a855-f25749387f91)

One (#u65490d56-4be8-5bca-ab9d-7181745eef8b)

Two (#ua24f0799-05ff-5396-a831-4a83780b15af)

Three (#ua5583a7e-8c1e-5306-b08c-6e78931914da)

Four (#u97f87625-4684-5589-96ac-61d13994fb4c)

Five (#u0ae192c2-590a-5572-b844-14708f0cfd23)

Six (#ub149f31e-c2f1-559a-9566-088fd8c1332e)

Seven (#u4e5c8c4c-9ca5-53e1-b2de-f927fbbc7b7a)

Eight (#u7c931864-0764-5920-a253-78da85a9c535)

Nine (#u44a64161-b6fe-5cd1-8a4c-3495d3a07a8a)

Part 2 (#u412a4583-4e14-533c-a531-783c19ac821f)

One (#u62bc435d-e18f-5980-a974-0b3630770083)

Two (#u5d6281af-d3c8-50bd-9015-d50d09c42635)

Three (#u50a442d2-3f56-5c5e-9c36-cb87d62fd4ae)

Four (#ub7042606-7312-5e94-a5c0-d5daaaa9d336)

Five (#u3fded1c3-4958-5548-822b-872b57821775)

Six (#u22379ff6-c007-5c3c-81f0-c2d47683ff5a)

Seven (#u5df21bc3-7681-578a-999b-1d779228d57b)