Stars and Soil

By Dax Murray

“Don’t trust anyone, Lady Caitlin. Not even me. Especially not me. You can have allies here, but this court does not allow you the luxury of friends.”

The land is dying, commoners are protesting, and workers are revolting. The king is ailing, but the crown prince is not stepping in to quell the unrest.

But Caitlin does not care—she hasn't cared about anything since that day—the day her world shattered and she lost everything. Then she befriends a rebellion leader and catches the eye of the spoiled prince. These chance encounters could make her the most powerful woman in the realm—the power to rule it as queen, or the power to tear it all down from the inside as a revolutionary spy.

Either way, all she has to do is keep the prince's interest... and ignore the tug in her heart whenever she sees a certain noble lady.

But there is much more going on at court than the revolutionaries know about. Darker forces lurk just behind the throne, and if Caitlin is to survive with her head still on her shoulders, she will need to learn the ever-changing rules of power—or make new ones herself.

Caught in a web of deception and conspiracies—militant revolutionaries, cryptic priestesses, dangerous dukes, and a secretive lady-in-waiting with a ruthless family—Caitlin must unravel the truth of a magical, long-hidden prophecy or she will become yet another pawn of an enemy far more dangerous than a tyrannical king. An enemy that has been plotting in the shadows for centuries to make its next move.

And it has its sights set on making Caitlin into its weapon.