This is a wonderful story, kindly write more, thank you!

I hope I can somewhat make amends for my earlier, harsh review of "The dark, desert nights" by stating that I enjoyed the sequel very much. I love the setting, the description of the warriors' camp and culture clashes, the well-written secondary characters and the overall story arc. In fact, it reminds me very much of one of my favorite Narnia fanfics called "The Fledgling Year".
This story feels much more mature on several levels which fits the nature of a sequel - and, in fact, many of the more troublesome elements of the prequel seem reversed for the better in this one. One can feel how much Leylah has grown. And whatever relationship is in store between Leylah and Volkov, it is played out very differently than the one between Leylah and Azrahir. First of all, Leylah is free and in control here; being in a place of power, which sets her on equal footing with Volkov and there is obviously mutual respect between them, despite whatever reservations they have against each other; they actually make each other laugh from almost the beginning which I don't recall happened very often between Azrahir and Leylah. Yes, the situation back then did not inspire much laughter, but still, laughter/humor should be essential to the building of a relationship, should it not? Secondly, so far, Volkov never gets violent or manhandles her in the dominating way Azrahir did but slowly earns her trust by simply staying close, listening and overall treating her like an equal (the little power plays between them only confirm this, because they challenge each other on equal footing). He still manages to unsettle her but, in my eyes, in a significantly different way than Azrahir did, because it is much less dominating and intrusive and she seems to be more than able to hold her own. She is nowhere nearly as afraid around him as she was around Azrahir which is a big step up. It might all have something to do with her status as Mistress of the Sherokahns, but still I feel this relationship is much more mature and realistic than the one in the prequel. Though, I still find Leylah's reasoning about her former love troublesome (Ch 6) and borderline Stockholm Syndrome - which she only half-acknowledges before practically laughing it off as a silly trait/weakness (as does Volkov in Ch 9) that she has when it comes to the fear-inspiring Sherokhans…
Phew, another long review. But, all in all, keep up the good work. Looking forward to read what happens next.

Really enjoying the story so far I hope all is well with you and we can get an update soon ! Ps how dare you tear at my heartstrings with killing off Azrahir :(

Hey. What happened to the updates it been two months or havre you given up on this one?

Please update

Update please

Great story. please update

This was an interesting chapter. We got to see a lot more of Leylah's human side. Your comment about how she felt fragile compared to the others feels like foreshadowing for her emotions later in the chapter.

Question: if they let the slaves wander off, wouldn't word get around that someone had attacked the fortress? Isn't that dangerous?

I like how Leylah is sort of becoming more of friends with Ciar. He could play an important role at some point, guarding her like he does.

I'm not clear about who/what the shape in the wagon in Leylah's flashback/dream is, but I'm guessing things will become clearer with time.

I hope you update soon!

I like this chapter. We're getting into the swing of the story now, and I am starting to feel familiar with the characters. I like how much insight we get into Leylah, Silja, and Karésec society.

That being said, I think you might have gone a little overboard with the descriptions of new characters? Not too much, because you were showing how much Leylah analyses those around her. But you could cut back a little bit.

I look forward to seeing where this goes. Even knowing a betrayal is coming from somewhere, I find myself rather trusting these men. So I wonder how things will go wrong...

If Volkov really thinks Leylah as dainty as she seems well... I look forward to seeing his rude awakening.
I was very happy to see this update :)
Do it again soon!

-Aja
P.S I like animals so I'm hoping that dog will a companion of sorts

I am really enjoying this and I really hope things work out the way I want them to because I'm investing a lot in that "Romance" sub-genre.
Update soon!

-Aja

Your strategy definitely makes sense. My questions were more rhetorical: if you actually answered them, there'd be no point to you writing the rest of the story! :)

Hm, based on that comment, foreshadowing in the story, and knowledge of how skillfully you revealed the betrayal last book, I'm keeping an eye out now. I don't know about Jarva. His men seem to like her, but they could come to resent her as she keeps flaunting the Sherokahns' superior packing skills in their faces. (Granted she's not trying to flaunt them.)

Also, I noticed your verbs got confused from time to time this chapter, usually to do with plurality (like saying "he were" or "they is").

Anyway, I look forward to seeing where this goes! I like how we get to see Leylah still in her recovery phase after Azrahir.

Because I don't have an account, I checked your page every few days to see if you'd begun posting this story. :P

The plot doesn't feel too rushed to me, at the moment.

I really like this chapter. You start by showing once again how impressive and severe Leylah can be, but then you showed how Leylah is still compassionate and human. I understand her reasons for initially refusing the contract much better now. I also think you handled the flashback really well. I often dislike flashbacks, since they can feel like a lazy method. But because your flashback was in such a logical place, and you led in and out of it with Leylah's present thoughts about that past event, it worked really well. And it was certainly important to know. You also wove in a hint about how Azrahir died in this chapter: so he died during a mission? -Do they really know for sure that he's dead?-
Also, I teared up a bit during the lemon tree scene. I really like that part.
Oh, and were you implying at the beginning of the chapter that Volkov found her appearance impressive?

I look forward to seeing how things unfold! I know something will have to go wrong, for there to be a story...

So glad to see you make a sequel to The dark, desert nights. I absolutely loved that one and can't wait to see where you go with this one :)

NOOOOO! AZRAHIR! I loved Azrahir... :( :( :( *cries* well I will still be reading your story with lots of enthusiasm its just...Azrahir...