At the Road’s End is the story of an exiled paladin of the nature god, Ek, named Toulikki of the Leaf and Pond.
She is returning home after 16 years’ absence to see her sister before handing herself into the Inquisition. At home, she is known simply as Toini. She longs to reconnect with her sister but finds it difficult to find the correct words and only has a limited amount of time before the Inquisition catches up to her. Everyone who knew her has assumed she was dead for the last sixteen years, and now she has to try to explain her lack of communication.
There is so much that might have happened to both sisters in the intervening years that they are both cagey and unwilling to give away too much. Their conversations are filled with tension, and defensive walls are raised between them before they really get a chance to reconnect.
The story is told from Toini’s perspective, so we are a party to her feelings, which are running amok.
Toini is such an interesting character. When she became a paladin, an acorn was put inside her, and vines began to grow from it and out from the top of her head. When she is happy, the flowers on her hair vines blossom; when afraid or stressed, thorns appear. Toini has been replaced by Ek, exiled for murder, but not yet desacralised by his church, so she still has some powers and is able to tell when someone is lying. She also still has an affinity with the natural world. There is a door within her mind which takes her into Ek’s domain, but the meadows and forests therein have been dying since Ek cast her out.
Toini has a companion, Raoul, her chronicler, who is another mysterious and interesting character. He is aura divergent, which makes him an expert at hiding on the edges of people’s vision so that he is barely ever noticed. He also acts as her information gatherer, collecting secrets easily from people who do not notice his presence.
At the Road’s End is not an action-packed story, but there are action scenes around the Inquisition catching up to Toini. Instead, it is an in-depth character study that gently unfolds as the layers of Toini’s past are gradually revealed.
The world in which Toini’s story is set is an interesting one, and I would have liked more detail. There are gods and paladins, werewolves, dwarves, elves and anfylk populating this world; and there are trains, airships and horse-drawn carriages for transport. Mobile phones are also ever-present, which is unusual in a fantasy and gave the story a more modern-day feel. There are also mentions of social media and influencers. The descriptions of the natural world and how it responds to Toini’s presence were fabulous – I really liked the idea of her vines and her face tattoo reacting to her emotions!
If you like reading character-driven, secondary world escapist fantasy anchored in nature, without grimdark and bloodthirsty battles, I would recommend giving this book a try.
