From childhood, Violet Rychman has dreamed of a coming war, of death and battle on an unimaginable scale. She has seen and heard ghosts, who have loved and guided her. Now the future she dreamed has come to pass. World War I rages across Europe. Millions of people are dying; entire villages are disappearing. A great and terrible vision sweeps over Violet, offering powers heralded by the Muses of antiquity. The ability to impact people's memories, even shape their thoughts. To guide their souls. To pass between the world of the living and that of the dead and to bring others through that passage. These and other gifts once belonged to people Violet loved. Now they are hers, and she must use them to attempt to stop death itself.

In the late 1860s, in Cairo, Egypt, Beatrice Smith and five other young people are summoned to become the Guard. From different backgrounds and faiths, they must unite in the Great Work. Beatrice, as the Leader, is granted intimate acquaintance with the goddess, who is preparing to take human form. What Beatrice does not expect is that her own heart will be opened to the possibility and promise of love. This enchanting prequel to Leanna Renee Hieber's gas lamp fantasy, Strangely Beautiful, returns to print after more than a decade, edited and revised for Tor's publication. Thrilling gaslamp fantasy by a master of the genre: 'Hieber has staked out the Victorian era the way Mary Robinette Kowal owns the Regency.' - Beatrice.com