About the book: 2024 / The second book in the series continues the story of the amaranths - half-humans, half-beasts - who openly announced their existence to humanity. Each book has its own main characters and a complete plot, but there is also an end-to-end intrigue, so we recommend reading the novels in order. Eloquent Starmark is the tenth child of the head of the dog clan. Such children are unusually gifted, but lack freedom of choice. Eloquent is ready to come to terms with the fact that serving the clan will doom him to eternal loneliness, but the innocent prank of his younger brother gives him a chance to change his future. Kimiko Miyabe is the middle of the sisters in a family of hereditary observers. She is used to remaining in the shadows, as befits those who have been watching the amaranths for centuries. Quite unexpectedly for herself, Kimiko finds herself in the role of a courtly knight who has proposed to a beautiful lady, or rather, a beautiful young man from a clan of dogs. And this event confuses the plans of both observers and amarans…