Author: Melissa Ragland

Publisher:

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 591

ISBN-13: 9781093480047

Born a daughter when she should have been a son, Elivya is drawn to sword and dagger rather than the niceties of her station. To her father's stone-faced Tuvrian, she is heresy incarnate, but Quintin's oath to House Lazerin binds him to obey and train her in the ways of combat. Her mother Nefira, a formidable woman with a mysterious past, arms her with another set of deadly skills that require no blade to employ: to observe, to manipulate, to move unseen. As the Persican empire closes in, determined to quietly supplant a king lost in his grief, Elivya will need every one of her hard-won skills - and allies - to set things right. BACK COVER: "Traitor. It is what they call me, still, in quiet circles and hushed conversations. There is little room for truth in the minds of ordinary men. Surely, I am what they say, accused and confessed by mine own lips. There are ghosts I will carry until the day I pass beyond this life to the far shore. Adulil knows, I am unworthy of His Mother's grace, but the crimes of which I am guilty are not the story entire." Pride is the signature trait of House Lazerin, and its young successor is no exception. In her unconventional position as a female heir, Elivya is raised with an equally unorthodox set of skills meant to help her navigate the dangers at Court and beyond. Securing an advantageous marriage, however, is not the only challenge that awaits her as she enters society. In Litheria, the city of light, heart of Alesia and seat of the royal House of Adulil, gossip is as dangerous to a young noblewoman as any assassin. As she navigates the nest of vipers that is King Amenon's Court, Elivya quickly realizes that her duty to her House may be the least pressing concern at hand. The calculated schemes of Persica, a neighboring empire bent on conquest, threaten to poison the very soul of her homeland, and in order to save her nation, she will have to betray it.