NoQS Agent Round: In the Shadow of Necropolis

Title: IN THE SHADOW OF THE NECROPOLIS
Genre: YA Fantasy
Word Count: 84,000


My MC and MA (main antagonist) are dressed as:

Both my main character and my antagonist would be dressed as Tezcatlipoca, the god of death. My antagonist would dress as him because she is a priestess, dedicated to his worship, and so would feel comfortable in his guise. My protagonist would dress as him because he terrifies her more than anything. As the most frightening thing she could think of, Tezcatlipoca would be the perfect costume for her.

Query:

Seventeen-year-old Eleuia Kantun is familiar with living in the shadows of authority—first as the daughter of the king, now as sister of the new king. When a mystical darkness rises from the Necropolis dedicated to the gods of death and covers the land, it brings with it a madness which cannot be predicted. No one knows who it will seize next. When her brother, Teya, exposes his madness during a speech, the royal council fears he has lost his grip on reality and sentences him to death.

But Eleuia soon discovers that her uncle—a member of the council—and the high priestess of the Necropolis have a darker agenda than only her brother’s death. They want to wipe her entire House from the face of the earth. While the council continues to build their plot, Eleuia agrees to become queen, and pretends to go along with their plans to execute Teya while she searches for a way to cure him and restore him to the throne. As she fights off hallucinations and tries to keep her knowledge of the plot secret from the council, Eleuia must find a way to save her brother and her country, before the madness claims her too.

First 250:

Eleuia Kantun’s father, the king, was dead. Foolish though it might be, she had never prepared herself for that moment. It was never supposed to end that way. So soon. And yet, after weeks of watching the life slowly leach from him—the royal doctors unable to provide them with answers—she was relieved it had ended.

The mourners—members of the high houses of Ixtan—stood on the chamber floor below the dais, all draped in black. Their heads bowed in reverent silence, each mourner held a flickering candle. It was difficult to distinguish them from the statues lining the dark crypt like sentinels.

Eleuia stole a glance over her shoulder at the largest statue: Tezcatlipoca, god of death. At thirty feet tall, he stood watch over the main chamber of the Necropolis. His head tilted back, mouth open to reveal his dripping fangs. His face had no definable features, rendering it blank—more animal than human. Heavy earrings and a metal collar were his only adornments, and his arms extended slightly, palms up to bestow a dark blessing on his people. Tezcatlipoca’s robes swirled and flowed, as though woven with smoke and blood.

Eleuia shivered. She had not set foot in the Necropolis for ten years. It was a place she had never wished to go again.

Her head remained high, an attempt to portray a beacon of stoicism and strength. The gaze of so many mourners weighed on her.