Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Fiction
Ismae was sold into an arranged marriage but when her new husband sees the scars on her back that resulted from her mother attempting to abort her he flies into a rage. In Brittany those scars are known to mean that the bearer was fathered by the God of Death. Her husband feels betrayed and beats her savagely. She is rescued by the local priest and a healer and taken away to a convent dedicated to serving the old Gods.
She finds out that she will be trained as an assassin; an instrument of judgment for those marked by Death. Now no man will have power over her again.
Three years later she is sent to the court of the duchy of Brittany. The young dutchess Anne as not been formally crowned and the leaders of many kingdoms are looking to marry her to seize power. Ismae needs to find protect Anne and find out who is behind the attempts to steal her throne. But can she trust the orders from her convent or the men that they have placed her with in order to get close to the court?
This is the first of a series about the Convent of St. Morain and the women trained there. The main mystery was fairly easy to figure out but I enjoyed the story of the assassins hand picked by Death to serve him.
