The Bridge Kingdom

by Danielle L. Jensen

Lara has been trained her entire life to destroy the Bridge Kingdom — a nation built on the only land bridge connecting two continents. Sent as a bride to King Aren, she must spy on his kingdom and find its weaknesses. But as she discovers the truth about her enemy, she realizes the real threat may be the father who sent her.

24 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Ahnna Kertell — Aren's sister and Ithicana's sharpest skeptic — the one person in the bridge kingdom who never trusted Lara and was right about it, which didn't make
• Aren Kertell — The Bridge King — a ruler who inherited the world's most valuable structure and the impossible job of defending it from everyone who wants it, who mar
• Eli — One of Aren's bridge guard soldiers — loyal, capable, and part of the close-knit military community that Lara is simultaneously infiltrating and growi
• Empress Petra Anaphora — The Empress of Valcotta — Zarrah's aunt, a bloodthirsty manipulator who wants eternal war with Maridrina because peace would undermine her power, and
• Jor — Aren's right hand — a bridge guard commander whose loyalty to the king and Ithicana is absolute, and whose pragmatism makes him the person who handles
• Keris Veliant — The Maridrinian prince who reads books in a family that values swords — Lara's brother, Silas's greatest disappointment, and the sequel series' unlike
• Lara Veliant — A princess raised as a weapon — trained since childhood in combat, seduction, and espionage to destroy the Bridge Kingdom from the inside, who fell in
• Nana — Aren's grandmother and Ithicana's political elder — a former queen whose experience and influence shape the kingdom's decisions long after she stepped
• Serin — Silas's spymaster and Lara's handler — the man who managed the weaponization of twelve girls and reported their progress to a king who viewed them as
• Silas Veliant — The King of Maridrina — a man who raised twelve daughters as expendable weapons and sent his favorite to seduce and destroy a kingdom, because control
• The Veliant Sisters — Twelve princesses raised as weapons — Lara was chosen, but the sisters she trained alongside are both her competition and her only family, bound by sh
• Zarrah — A Valcottan general raised to hate Maridrina — whose encounter with Keris Veliant proves that the enemy your nation taught you to despise might be the

Locations

• Eranahl — Ithicana's real capital — a city hidden inside a volcano, the kingdom's most closely guarded secret, where the entire population can shelter during th
• Ithicana — The Bridge Kingdom — a nation built on an island chain connected by the only bridge between two continents, where controlling the trade route IS the k
• Maridrina — The northern kingdom — aggressive, ambitious, dependent on Ithicana's bridge for trade, and ruled by a king who decided the simplest solution was to t
• Midwatch — Ithicana's capital island — the administrative and defensive heart of the bridge kingdom, where the king rules and the bridge's secrets are kept.
• Nerastis — The divided border city — split by a river with Maridrinian soldiers on one bank and Valcottan soldiers on the other, where Keris and Zarrah meet in s
• The Bridge — The only land route between two continents — a massive structure spanning island to island across a treacherous strait, the most strategically valuabl
• The Tempest Seas — The treacherous waters between continents — the reason the bridge exists, because sailing across is possible but expensive and dangerous enough that o
• The Veliant Compound — Where Silas raised his weapons — an isolated training facility where twelve girls learned to fight, spy, seduce, and kill, believing they were serving
• Valcotta — The southern kingdom — Maridrina's rival across the bridge, Zarrah's homeland, and the third point in a continental power triangle where everyone need

Items

• Bridge Trade Tariffs — The toll that funds a kingdom and fuels a war — every good crossing between continents pays Ithicana for the privilege, which makes the bridge worth m
• Shipbreakers — Ithicana's island-mounted catapult weapons — capable of sinking ships before they reach the bridge, the technological backbone of a tiny kingdom's abi
• The Political Marriage — The arrangement that started as espionage and became the series' central love story — a Maridrinian spy married to an Ithicanian king, where every act

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