Throne of Glass (50 page)
Authors: Sarah J. Maas
“Well, Champion,” he said. He still wasn’t wearing his sword.
“Yes, Captain?”
The corners of his mouth tugged upward. “Are you happy now?”
She didn’t fight her own grin. “I may have just signed away my soul, but . . . yes. Or as happy as I can be.”
“Celaena Sardothien, the King’s Champion,” he mused.
“What about it?”
“I like the sound of it,” he said, shrugging. “Do you want to know what your first mission will be?”
She looked at his golden-brown eyes and all of the promises that lay within them, and linked her arm with his as she smiled. “Tell me tomorrow.”
It’s taken a decade for
Throne of Glass
to go from inception to publication, and I have far more people to thank than I could ever fit within this space.
Endless gratitude to my agent and very own Champion, Tamar Rydzinski, who understood Celaena from page one. Thank you for the phone call that changed my life.
To my brilliant and daring editor, Margaret Miller—how can I ever thank you enough for believing in me and
Throne of Glass
? I’m so proud to be working with you. To Michelle Nagler and the rest of the absolutely fantastic team at Bloomsbury—thank you so, so much for all of your hard work and support!
I owe a huge debt to Mandy Hubbard for giving me that initial shove out the door. Mandy, you are—and will always be—my Yoda.
To my wonderful husband, Josh—you give me a reason to wake up every morning. You are my better half in every possible way.
Thank you to my parents, Brian and Carol, for reading me fairy tales and never telling me that I was too old for them; to my little brother, Aaron—you are the kind of person I wish I could be.
To Stanlee Brimberg and Janelle Schwartz—you have no idea how far your encouragement went (though maybe this book offers some proof). I wish there were more teachers like you.
To Susan Dennard, for the incredible revision suggestions and for being a true friend through thick and thin. You came into my life when I needed you most, and my world is now brighter because you’re in it.
Thanks to Alex Bracken, an amazing critique partner, a phenomenal writer, and an even better friend—words can’t express how grateful I am to call you that. Or how grateful I am for all of the candy you sent me during revisions!
To Kat Zhang, for always making time to critique my work and for being a stellar friend. To Brigid Kemmerer, for all the e-mails that kept me sane. To Biljana Likic—because talking with you about the characters and plot made it real. To Leigh Bardugo, my bunker buddy extraordinaire—I couldn’t have gotten through this process without you.
To Erin Bowman, Amie Kaufman, Vanessa Di Gregorio, Meg Spooner, Courtney Allison Moulton, Aimée Carter, and the ladies at Pub(lishing) Crawl—you’re such talented writers and wonderful people, thank you for being a part of my life.
To Meredith Anderson, Rae Buchanan, Renee Carter, Anna Deles, Gordana Likic, Sarah Liu, Juliann Ma, Chantal Mason, Arianna Sterling, Samantha Walker, Diyana Wan, and Jane Zhao: I’ve never met any of you face-to-face, but the years of your unfailing enthusiasm have meant so much to me. Kelly De Groot, thanks for the incredible map of Erilea!
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, thank you to all my readers from FictionPress.com. Your letters, fan art, and encouragement gave me the confidence to try to get published. I’m honored to have you as fans—but even more honored to have you as my friends. It’s been a long journey, but we made it! Here’s looking at you!
SARAH J. MAAS was sixteen years old when she published an early draft of
Throne of Glass
on the FictionPress website, where thousands of readers flooded her in-box with enthusiastic e-mails. Many years and revisions later, Sarah is delighted to be publishing the final version of Throne of Glass as her debut novel. A New York native, Sarah currently lives in Southern California, with her husband.
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facebook.com/THRONEOFGLASS
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Text copyright © 2012 by Sarah J. Maas
Map copyright © 2012 by Kelly de Groot
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published in the United States of America in August 2012
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in August 2012
www.bloomsburyteens.com
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Maas, Sarah J.
Throne of glass / by Sarah J. Maas. — 1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: After she has served a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, Crown Prince Dorian offers eighteen-year-old assassin CelaenaSardothien her freedom on thecondition that she act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
ISBN 978-1-59990-695-9 (hardback)
[1. Fantasy. 2. Assassins—Fiction. 3. Princes—Fiction. 4. Court and
courtiers—Fiction. 5. Prisoners—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M111575Th r 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2012011229
ISBN 978-1-59990-939-4 (e-book)