About the book: year / In an empire torn apart by a long-standing conflict between the clergy and sorcerers, a childless ruler dies, and his wife disappears under mysterious circumstances. The search is entrusted to Lord Demos, the emperor’s nephew and one of the contenders for the throne. Demos soon realizes that he is drawn into a game whose rules are inaccessible to him. On the other side of the continent, a God-fearing duke breaks his sacred oath and enters into a fight for the throne for the sake of love, while the commander of a mercenary army tries to seize power in the city, torn between his own interests and an old duty. They are all pieces in someone else's game, and they have to figure out whose.