Dashti is a mucker maid whose father died, then her brothers ran off, then her mother died. She has been taught the healing songs of her people by her mother, and their calming words help her through her journey to the city to look for work. She is taught to read, write and obey her mistresses every command. When she meets her new mistress, Lady Saren, she wonders at the Lady's wild and crazed ramblings, but she agrees to never leave her. Little does she know, Lady Saren has displeased her father by refusing to marry the man he has chosen for her. She literally trembles with fear when he is around. Her father has decided that her disobedience warrants being locked up. In a tower. For seven years.
That is a long time for anyone, but Dashti has agreed to never abandon her mistress. If it weren't for Dashti, I firmly believe that Lady Saren would have wasted away. You would think that nothing exciting would happen in a tower with no sunlight, but you'd be wrong. Their adventures with rats, cats, men who want to get in to harm them, one who wants the Lady for love, and Dashti's wanting to get out provide a reading you can hardly believe.
Lady Saren commands Dashti to do things she doesn't want to do, and it could end extremely badly for her if she doesn't figure a way out, but Saren is not capable of doing many things, and Dashti knows this, so she follows her orders, but by reading her journal we see her inner struggle throughout the book. In the end, it's her journal that saves her after she has already saved countless others.
Do they actually spend seven years in the tower, or does Dashti figure a way out? Well, the second half of the book is what happens when they get out of the tower. I admit, I should have seen some of the destruction coming, but even so, it makes for fascinating reading.
I have to say that Lady Saren drove me absolutely crazy for the majority of the book. I had to keep reminding myself that she wasn't raised to be able to do anything for herself, and by the end of the book I came to understand a lot more about her past that put her present actions into perspective. I ended up liking her a lot more, but Dashti steals the show in this book!
Buy Book of a Thousand Days!
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