Cover of The Gilded Key

Dark Fantasy · Adventure · Mystery

The Gilded Key

Ravenna Solas

One door in the city is older than the city.

A locksmith who has never failed to open anything is handed a key with no matching door, and a debt she cannot refuse. What she opens will not close behind her.

Reading time
8 h 48 min read
Pages
494
Language
English
Recommended
16+
4.9 · 2,310 readers
Watch preview Hardcover $46Digital $16
Wishlist ShareVolume one of the Ashvale Rings.
HardcoverDigitalAudiobook — coming soon

Story world

Ashvale, a walled city built in rings, where each ring keeps a different century and the innermost ring keeps none at all.

DebtCraftForbidden knowledgeDevotionWonderDreadAwe

Characters

  • Vesper Quill

    Locksmith

    Learned the trade from a thief.

  • The Registrar

    Keeper of doors

    Records every opening in gold ink.

  • Brannoc

    Debt-holder

    Patient in the way that stone is patient.

Timeline

  1. The First Ring

    Ashvale is founded around a door already standing.

  2. Year 900

    The Registrar begins the gold ledger.

  3. Now

    Vesper receives the key.

Preview

A fifteen-second trailer, then the opening pages as they were first printed.

Trailer coming soon

The reading preview is below

Opening pages

Every lock is an argument, and Vesper had never lost one.

The key on the table was not arguing. It was waiting, which was worse.

End of preview

Soundtrack

  1. 01Ashvale at Dusk
  2. 02Tumblers and Teeth
  3. 03The Innermost Ring
  4. 04Gold Ink

Reader reviews

  • “The best fantasy I have read in years. Every chapter earns the next.”

    Yusuf A.

  • “Ashvale is now a real place in my head.”

    Lien D.

  • “Dense in the best way. Book two, please.”

    Bram O.