[NOVEL] One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.

Together they must gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.

The Shepherd King series. Book 1

One Dark Window (fantasy, romance, gothic vibes) is the first book in The Shepherd King duology, takes place in a fantasy place called Blunder, which is now surrounded by thick, mysterioud and dangerous mist, locking the entire kingdon inside. The only way to lift the mist is to collect the entire deck of cards, but the point is the one main card is missing.

This is a more in-depth lore of the story and what happens.

The story of the mist and infection with magic starts from the first king, The Shepherd King. As the legend goes, there is magic in this world and people came to the Spirit of the Wood to ask for gifts. Part of the lore.

"Long ago," my aunt said, "before Providence Cards, the Spirit of the Wood was our divinity. Folk of Blunder sought her out, combing the woods for the smell of salt. They asked her blessing and gifts. They honored her woods and took the names of the trees as their own. This was old magic - old religion." Her brow had darkened. "For his reverence, the Spirit of the Wood granted the Shepherd King strange, powerful magic. He wanted to share his magic with his kingdom, and so he made twelve Providence Cards." Her voice had grown solemn. "But everything has a price. For each Card, the Shepherd King gave something up to the Spirit of the Wood."

But because he asked for magic and created the Providence Cards he shared with people, less people came to the Spirit. Then the mist came. To get the information on how to lift the mist the Shepherd King bartered again, but was tricked, because he gave one and only Card of Twin Alders, meaning that he can't collect the entire deck of cards and the Blunder will forever be enclosed within the mist. 

The deck of cards was very powerful in itself and consisted of twelve cards:

The Black Horse made its beholder a master of combat. The Golden Egg granted great wealth. The Prophet offered glimpses of the future. The White Eagle bestowed courage. The Maiden bequeathed great beauty. The Chalice turned liquid into truth serum. The Well gave clear sight to recognize one’s enemies. The Iron Gate offered blissful serenity, no matter the struggle. The Scythe gave its beholder the power to control others. The Mirror granted invisibility. The Nightmare allowed its user to speak into the minds of others. The Twin Alders had the power to commune with Blunder’s ancient entity, the Spirit of the Wood.

And the number of cards in total is as follows:

The Shepherd King had made seventy-eight Providence Cards in descending order. There were twelve Black Horses, held exclusively by the King’s elite guard—the Destriers. Eleven Golden Eggs. Ten Prophets. Nine White Eagles. Eight Maidens. Seven Chalices. Six Wells. Five Iron Gates. Four Scythes. Three Mirrors. Two Nightmares.

And one Twin Alders.

Black Horse should be the least prominenet because it only granted physical advances and were all given to Destriers, King's guard. And other cards that were within king's family were the Scythes, which allowed anyone in possession to make the other person do anything against their will. The rest of the cards seem to be scattered all over the place. And even if the theft or other means of possession of the Cards is a death sentence, it does not prevent the Cards changing hands. Like we know from the beginning that Elspeth's uncle came into possession of the Nightmare Card when she was little and he came back with a blodied sword.

The name and fate of the Shepherd King are unknown, but he left a book as a warning. That all magic is not free. Either the card you hold or the magic you possess when you survive the fever. Thus the Blunder lived for hundreds of years under the rule of the Rowan family (not the same as Sheherd King) and as it is said many kings wanted to lift the mist, which became thicker and closer. It meant that the danger of everyone falling victim to the mist is getting closer. But because under the Rowans the children who caught the fever were condemned, they were taken by Physicians to the Stone castle's dungeons, snatched with their fate unknown and those who concealed the infected were treated as traitors, becoming infected became one of the most feared things.

Elspeth had the fever when she was little, but her father, who was the Captain of the King's guards - Destriers - at that time, had sent her away into the woods, to her aunt's and uncle's estate. She survived, but then she knew what was her magic. One day when her uncle returned with a Nightmare Card, she touched it out of curiosity and basically absorbed the monster sealed in the card into her mind. She called him Nightmare, they lived like this for years, in caution. All before she met Ravyn Yew on that fateful night. She had no idea it was him and had no scruples showing her side and asking Nightmare for help, who in return gave her strength to escape. But because Ravyn was the one who was behind the mask they later found her to confront her and they ended up working together to collect the deck, lifting the mist and getting rid of the monster in her head was in her own interests.

Due to their confrontations and crossing paths Ravyn and Elspeth started to have feeling for each other, but both were burdened by either their own secrets or responsibilities, but love was stronger than anything else.

But one should not wait from this story more that in can offer. For example, it says about adventure. But adventure they can have when the kingdom is already this small, they are not meant to travel to unknown places, they have to find and collect the remaining few cards they're lacking from existing ones. And the higher the cards are, the more rare.

The participants are mostly the Yew family and the second prince who openly dislikes his Rowan family of brutes, his ruthless father and his older brother who seemingly enjoys the torture of people. And thankfully they were at work for some time, so they only have few cards missing, the Iron Gate, the Well and Twin Alders. Although it seems like the stakes are not that high, but stealing cards is punishable, what they do is treason and they can't escape anywhere if they're caught. It's kind of hard to do it in lain sight.

As mentioned, all magic comes with a price to pay, for card users it's the opposte effect of the cards itself (like wealth and poverty), but for infected with magic things are different, infected possess magic of their own, so with the use of magic comes degeneration, each person has their own type, but mostly they involve body and mind. Because Ravyn's brother was basically king's hostage, Emory had the same effect of using his magic, he withered physically and mentally. Same goes for Elspeth, her own talent is only about absorbing the cards, it is the talent of the monster inside to see the light emanated from those cards (which allowed her to join the escapade) and also her physical outbursts.

Speaking of the Nightmare. It becomes evident for the reader who this Nightmare truly is, but honestly he's kinda neat, always speaks in rhymes, I quite liked him.

Last passage is the few words about romance, although it felt a bit bleak, but I consider it a thing when it comes to first person narration, you can't deeply feel what the other person truly feels, but overall it was quite fine. I rooted for them, especially at the ending.

It was really interesting to dive into this type of lore and the book itself felt quite good. The overall atmosphere indeed feels having gothic vibes, it also feels a bit medieval to me. The folks of the Blunder are not really in the picture and we don't know their habitat, but there are small details here and there at least to enrich the picture. From what we know there are quite few noble families, each with a tree as their last name, all have their own insignia and colors, household daily life is not included though. But they make a big deal to celebrate a nameday and with the king the celebrate Equinox in the book there is a talk of Solstice. So here's that. Overall because our characters are preoccupied by collecting cards, they do not dwell into the joys of life. They might only miss it a bit.

So this is it, the story of a girl with a monster in her head, trying to live her life, but not being able to live her life to the fullest, finding her aim to help lifting the mist, but being entangled in this confrontation between several people. Author does not explain and goes into many details, for example to explain motivation of people outside of our main characters, mainly because it's a first person narration, so you can guess the details of who is whose side and why they do what they do from actions.

Anyway, it was deeply enjoyable. I liked that it's quite fast-paced and easy to binge. Even if I don't prefer the first person narration, but it was fine, I could handle it no problem :)

RATE: 4,5/5.