THE BLADE & THE BANNER

"Corruption is a disease-an irreverence against the voices of the people who shaped the earth. It may be in your blood to rule these banks, but a seed, once well-planted, grows into cruelty. You think you are building a legacy of gold, but you are merely watering a garden of stone with the people's thirst." -Empress Nivaya

An Emperor is but a lamb, gilded for the altar and destined for the blade.

The death of an Emperor has left the realm on the precipice of ruin. As the Eighth Continent's three great empires-each born from the blood of a failed, ancient war-vulture over the remaining power, Grand Duke Hytner prepares to seize the throne by force. But the Emperor's final decree has ignited a desperate race: the search for his lost heir.
​Keiser Somerset, a knight bound by a blood-oath to the crown, embarks on a journey to find this forgotten child. He discovers not a prince, but Rejhine-a former assassin forged in the fires of a brutal past. Swearing to be her shield, Keiser thrusts her into a den of vipers: the imperial court.
​Rejhine is the sole heiress to a fractured world of treachery and ancient prejudice. Facing a nobility that mocks the rule of a woman and a populace that fears her origins, she is expected to be a puppet. They are mistaken. Hardened by torture and trained in the art of the kill, Rejhine refuses to be broken. In a land where power is measured by the sharpness of one's steel, the "Assassin Empress" will redefine what it means to rule-or watch the continent burn.

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See Note From Author in parts.