For the word is quiet and powerful

Book review: The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon

"For the word is quiet and powerful
Sharper than any two-edged sword.
Piercing even to the divided asunder
Of soul and spirit,
Of joints and marrow.
It is a discerner of the thoughts
And intents of the heart."

- Amy Harmon

After a long time, along comes a book that is so enchanting, imaginative, intriguing, unique, poetic and romantic that I just can't find the right words to do full justice to its beauty, though I will try. It is a book about the power of the word and this blog of words is the perfect place to extol the virtues of this extraordinary book.

"In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left."

In a world similar to the Medieval Ages, little Lark is born with a Gift - a gift of words that she can speak and bring into existence. She can make puppets fly, dance and jump just by saying those words and stop them by taking away the words.

"You don't need wings to fly."

"What do you need, daughter?"

"Words."

She has inherited the gift from her mother, Lady Meshara, who tries to keep this a secret from everyone including her father, Lord Corvyn. In this world where magic is shunned, exhibiting the powers of a Teller, Healer, Changer or Spinner is forbidden and anyone with such a Gift is persecuted and even killed by the King Zoltev's orders. As the book opens, an inadvertent demonstration of Lark's gift results in her mother's murder by the king. In that one moment, everything changes and Lark is so shocked that her voice is gone forever, urged by the dying words of her mother:

"Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive.

Silence, daughter. Stay alive."

Before dying. Lady Meshara curses Lark's father, the king Zoltev and his son, the young prince Taris:

"The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would sell his soul and lose his son to the sky."

Shocked into silence, Lark grows up as a mute and neglected girl, kept a virtual prisoner by her father who fears that if anything were to happen to her, he would die too. He doesn't even teach her to read or write words, knowing that this might cause her to exhibit powers like her mother. Lark has only a faithful troll servant, Boojohni, for company, the only one who cares for her and protects her. She longs to be free and to live a life of her own. She feels emotions and words bottled up within her all the time and is able to hear words emanating from trees, animals and even people. Her loneliness and desolation come across strongly - bereft of words, she has no way of communicating with others:

"I have thoughts and feelings. I have pictures and colors. They are all bottled up inside of me because I can't make words.

But I can hear them.

The world is alive with words. The animals, the trees, the grass, and the birds hum with their own words.

"Life," they say.

"Air," they breathe.

"Heat," they hum.

I love these words. There is no deception or confusion. The words are simple. They feel the joy of creation. They feel joy because they ARE. Every living being has a word, and I hear them all.

But I can't make them."

One day, as Lark is wandering in the forest trying to hear words that she can't speak, she is captured by King Taris, the young prince of her childhood who is now the king after the sudden death of his father. He brings her back to his kingdom of Jeru to ensure her father's cooperation in the war that he is fighting against the Volgars, vicious half-human, half-vulture invaders.

Lark soon discovers that Taris is a man in the throes of an unknown anguish which she can't ignore and is compelled to use her abilities to alleviate his pain. She also realizes that Taris is nothing like his cruel father, especially after he makes her secret wish come true - by patiently teaching her to read, write and articulate words, thus giving her back the ability to communicate. Lark's newfound knowledge of words enhances her powers to make things happen with the words in her mind, and Tariq realizes that her powers can now be used to his advantage:

"You are a dangerous little bird. But I think I will keep you."

But Lark wonders if she is just a political pawn turned into a useful tool for Tariq or something more. She is also aware of how her abilities may hurt others and hence is against Taris' idea. In spite of her frail and bird-like structure and seemingly weak exterior, she is actually strong inside, a morally responsible character who wants to control her thoughts and use her unspoken words only to help others:

I was free. I was powerful. I was terrified. .
I was only limited by my ignorance,  by my fear, and by my own sense of right snd wrong.

In spite of their differences or maybe because of them, Lark and Taris share a strange bond and Lark is slowly able to communicate with him without speaking. The love story woven into the fantasy is slow to unfurl but breathtaking and sometimes poignant:

'“You glow, Lark.” His hand climbed back up again and swept over my unbound hair. 
I swallowed, suddenly close to tears. Then why does no one see me? 
“I see you,” he said..

The words had risen from his skin even when he wasn't speaking, and I had called them to me, collecting them like falling leaves, pressing them between the heavy pages of my memory so I could keep them.

Suddenly yearning had a flavor. It tasted like a king, a beautiful, frightening, infuriating man who flew into my life and began to free my words.

Though the love story is beautiful, this book is so much more than just a romance. It is ultimately a story of being true to one's own abilities, of making choices for the common good, and of accepting everyone as they are. I loved the way the story keeps moving forward, especially towards the end when there is a desperation in Lark's and Taris' relationship and they think that their time together is limited:

I welcomed him, feeling the battle within us both to reconnect and disconnect simultaneously...We were urgent. We were slow. We were barrelling towards the finish, even as we started all over again.

Surprising curses are revealed, hidden enemies emerge and epic battles need to be fought. The epilogue was just perfect and left me with a wonderfully content feeling. 

Very rarely do I come across books of this caliber - books that I want to re-read immediately after the first reading. I am mesmerized by Amy Harmon's magical writing and am definitely going to explore more of her books. This book is a romantic fantasy unlike anything I have ever read before and which I will wholeheartedly recommend, even though it has left me with a major book hangover:) I know it will take me months to find another book which matches up to this one!