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"We have come to a moment when what we know as goodness and mercy
will not be enough to guide us any longer. Your loved ones may not
ever understand what you did here today, but they need you to stand
for all that is good in humanity." With these words, war hero
Benito Sandoval launched one of the most brutal massacres in human
history, attacking the undefended colony of Guan-Yu and
slaughtering forty thousand of the civilians he had sworn his life
to protect. When humanity's fleet arrives, too late to stop the
attack, all that is left is ruins--and the cryptic words of a lone
alien survivor, warning humanity of the Henth, a race that has
devoured everything in its path. Hunted to the brink of extinction,
the Aireni were fleeing across the galaxy when they stumbled onto a
living weapon with speed, strength, and brutal cleverness: a
fragment of humanity on a long-forgotten planet. In desperation,
the Aireni set about honing humanity, breeding and modifying the
colonists into a weapon that might be the last hope for life in the
galaxy. As the human fleet searches the stars for the Henth, they
leave the ruined colony behind them. But the colonists have not
been destroyed. They have hidden. They have survived. And they know
who their enemies are. It is only a matter of time before they
return from their exodus to the destroyed city, to find the
technology the Aireni left behind. It is only a matter of time
before that technology carries them into the galaxy. And then, as
the last remnants of the surviving races face down the final
advance of the Henth, it is up to humanity to convince a long-lost
weapon to come to its aid...
At last, Catwin and Miriel have chosen their own path, escaping the
Court and its machinations, and fleeing to the Norstrung Provinces,
to aid the rebellion. As they shed the masks and deceptions of
their former life, however, both must face the fact that the same
dark forces they fled are at work even in the furthest reaches of
Heddred. But it is not only avarice and hatred that endanger
them-the prophecy made at Catwin's birth is slowly but surely
coming true, and betrayal has followed her in her escape from the
court. As the shadows of war and rebellion mass, Catwin must face
the fact that if she wishes to be true to herself and her alliance
with Miriel, it may be she who bears the cost of saving her
kingdom...
With Catwin's help, Miriel has captured the heart of the King, but
their victory has come at a cost: the suspicion and enmity of the
Duke, and the unrelenting hatred of the Court. As they recover from
the attempt on their lives, the two form a fragile alliance,
promising that their first loyalty is to each other, and that their
one goal is to survive. But to survive, Catwin and Miriel need
power, and the search for power of their own draws them ever
further into the Court and inexorably closer to the throne. Enemies
surround them, ruthless and vengeful, and the only way forward is a
dark path that threatens to sever them from themselves. For it is
not only enemies that are a danger Light and Shadow now, but the
weakness of their own hearts. As she protects them both, Catwin
struggles against her love for Temar, the Duke's assassin; to
capture the King's heart, Miriel must forget both her love for
Wilhelm, and her passion belief in the populist uprising. A
reckoning is coming, a betrayal that has been in the making for
decades, and if they are to survive, both Catwin and Miriel must be
prepared to give up everything they hold dear.
It has been only two generations since Arthur Warden seized the
throne of Heddred from the Conradines, and now the crown rests on
the head of Garad, sickly and weak. Shadows gather: legacies of the
centuries-long rivalries for power, old betrayals, the endless
plots of the courtiers, and the murmur of rebellion in the southern
provinces... Catwin, plucked from her life at the edge of the
Kingdom, is thrust abruptly into the world of the Court when she is
chosen by the Duke of Voltur to be a Shadow-spy, shield, and
blade-to his niece, the Lady Miriel DeVere. The Duke's ruthlessness
is legendary, and he will stop at nothing to become the power
behind the throne, using Miriel as a pawn to catch Garad's heart.
But the Duke's carefully-laid plans are only a piece of the
intrigue of the court, and greater forces than Catwin can imagine
are massed against her, determined to eliminate Miriel and impose a
new order of their own. If Catwin and Miriel are to survive, they
must learn quickly who to trust, and when to turn their skills
against the very people who have trained them...
It has been only two generations since Arthur Warden seized the
throne of Heddred from the Conradines, and now the crown rests on
the head of Garad, sickly and weak. Shadows gather: legacies of the
centuries-long rivalries for power, old betrayals, the endless
plots of the courtiers, and the murmur of rebellion in the southern
provinces... Catwin, plucked from her life at the edge of the
Kingdom, is thrust abruptly into the world of the Court when she is
chosen by the Duke of Voltur to be a Shadow-spy, shield, and
blade-to his niece, the Lady Miriel DeVere. The Duke's ruthlessness
is legendary, and he will stop at nothing to become the power
behind the throne, using Miriel as a pawn to catch Garad's heart.
But the Duke's carefully-laid plans are only a piece of the
intrigue of the court, and greater forces than Catwin can imagine
are massed against her, determined to eliminate Miriel and impose a
new order of their own. If Catwin and Miriel are to survive, they
must learn quickly who to trust, and when to turn their skills
against the very people who have trained them...
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