“The Eye of Leviathan” by M.A. Carrick

This second collaboration of Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms (under the combined pen name of M.A. Carrick) is very different from their absolutely fantastic Rook & Rose trilogy. That one I think of as Scott Lynch + Zorro + a metric ton of flirtations and sexual tension. This is much darker, and much more serious: it’s set in a reimagined late 16th/early 17th century Spain, where not only are the Spanish colonizing the New World, they are also colonizing the Sea Beyond: the faerie seas one can reach by sailing through the Straight of Gibraltar Pillars of Hercules under the right astrological conditions (with a few other restrictions as well).

The story begins with a Spanish noblewoman, having just given birth to (yet another) daughter, confiding in her friend, a tree spirit. Her husband has threatened to kill the child if it was another girl, and not the son he wants. The tree spirit offers a suggestion: leave the girl with the faerie grove, unbaptized, and the spirit of the tree can take the form of a boy child and take her place. The mother won’t get to raise her youngest daughter, but she’ll be safe; and the tree spirit will use his disguise to investigate the Spanish and learn how they’re subjugating his brethren from the Sea Beyond.

This is a story with two co-protagonists. First is the tree spirit, now a boy called Estevan making his way through Catholic Spain, trying to avoid drawing the ire of either his father or the ever-alert Inquisition (in this conception as watchful for fae influence as they are for insincere Muslim or Jewish converts or Protestant heretics). His goal is the royal Council of the Sea Beyond, overseeing the conquest of the fae, their baptism (or elimination), and the theft of their wealth & power - and the secrets behind how they’re doing it.

The other is the girl, who (how is unclear) made her way from the faerie grove into the company of the faeries of the Sea Beyond. She is known only as the Hungry Girl - the fae are immortal, and wherever she’s been they keep forgetting that mortals need to eat every single day. More than once even! She has heard many stories of the dreaded Conquistadors, with their strange ships made of dead trees and their weapons and armor of deadly iron. When she finally meets some Spaniards, she’s relieved they are merchants looking for trade, not conquest - and listens eagerly when their captain tells her that she needs to return to the mortal lands to get baptized, lest she burn in Hell for all eternity. That doesn’t sound good at all, so the Hungry Girl is very eager for this “baptism” thing.

My bet is that Alyc did the writing for the Hungry Girl, and Marie Estevan. I look forward to finding out if I’m right.

This is a pretty dark story all told. The European conquest of the Americas was absolutely brutal, and the actions of the Spanish in the Sea Beyond are on par with the real world history. And this is also the era shortly after the Reconquista, when both Muslims (who had ruled the Iberian peninsula) and Jews (who had been tolerated and flourished under Muslim rule) had to convert or die - and if they chose to convert, were persecuted by the Inquisition for generations after. None of that is glossed over.

I expected something great out of Brennan & Helms, and while this wasn’t what I was expecting, it is certainly something great. Very eager for #2.