She and He — S.D. Gripton

Twins She and He have been held prisoner since birth, their mother was the result of terrible assault, the twins being the result, the boy alabaster white and white haired, the girl dark, dark haired, He has been taught to fight, She taught to cook, to dance, all skills adding to their skills when they will be sold at fourteen. Their new owner can name them. In their single room, from where they are escorted daily, for learning purposes, they practice and use a stolen spoon to hack away at their single, wooden window. Three days short of their birthday, they manage to open the window, discovering the weather is stormy, with torrential rain. They climb out onto the roof and slide away, sliding up and down rooftops, soaked to their skin, wearing only knee-length shorts, chased by Hunter Hawks and BisDarKs; a terrible, awful mixture of robot and human; that hunt down runaways. During the storm the two finally come to the end of rooftops, drop from an eighty-storey building by using the balconies and discover the Tunnels, where miscreants and runaways hide. In the first Tunnel, He finds a sword, taking if from a thief. The sword, unknowingly, is Fearless, a legendary sword with only one known previous owner, Sheellaab, a peace-loving witch. When he takes a grip of the sword He has an image of the witch and following millenia, the sword has another owner, He. In the Tunnels, She and He discover monsters, thugs, thieves, poverty, and a badly-dressed population. She also finds a female friend, her first, Myandra who leads them out of the Tunnels to a long beach where, when they step into the sea, they are kidapped by merfolk and taken down to Lantris, the Undersea city. There, they meet Ser Greeth, Leader of merfolk, who promises to be an ally if they ever need one. Following the meeting, She and He are returned to land, enter the city and discover soldiers with future weapons, cruel Masters of many children such as themselves and the city, Kyrkwyll, is a city in the sky. A whole city, the surrounding areas, forest, seas and streets and Tunnels all held in the sky by majic. The magician is a witch named Kancrik. Days pass and She and He become more involved in the happenings of the city, making enemies everywhere they go, having to use the skills taught to them by their Master, learning to be a team and protecing Myandra all at the same time. Fearless is not only a sword, it possesses all the magic of the Land, to be used for good and peace and that is the mission of She and He. To this end, the novel ends with the three of them, Myandra included, leaping from the edge of the city to the All Below...to be continued