In Winter Queen, the Summer Queen gifts Ilyenna with a flower, which I call an Elice (so named for my mother, Alice) blossom. Each petal has the ability to heal one person. As captive, Ilyenna treasures the gift because she knows it can save three of her people. But she is later faced with the choice of watching two of her captors die (one an infant) or saving the gift for herself and those she loves.
If confronted with a similar situation, what would you do?
The flower itself is based off a sego lily, which has special significance to my people. After years of massacres, injustice, and an extermination order (which made it LEGAL to murder us and wasn’t rescinded until 1976)), we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with little to no food. The Native Americans showed us how to dig up the sego lily bulbs (about the size of a marble). That delicate little flower saved hundreds from starvation.
In the book, Ilyenna is ultimately confronted with a choice to become a healer or a killer (as a Winter Queen is an unthinking force of nature). On the cover, she holds a blossom in her hand, a symbol of the choice she must make.
Amber Argyle
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