The Sandveil Bride

Every hundred years the appointed heavens open.

Inside that window, the Eldest of Sand must marry the Eldest of Stone. Outside that window, the world begins a long collapse.

Sand invites heaven. Stone makes it stay. Their child renews the century.
The window is open now. The wells are dropping. The harvests are thinning. The wedding cannot wait.

Princess Samira of Ilyr has crossed the desert to marry Prince Tavian of Valedain. She has been trained her entire life for this rite. She has also been afraid, in private, that something about the prophecy was wrong, and she has kept her silence because asking would cost too much.

Outside the palace walls she meets a stable hand who does not give her his real name. He speaks without calculation. He sees her without the weight of who she is.

Across a third border, the kingdom of Sovareth has spent three generations preparing for this exact window. Its king, Aravan, has spent his whole life training to break the regime that built itself on top of the cycle.

First book of The Sandveil Trilogy. The rite the world has waited a century for is about to be performed. The rest is what the world refuses to do next.