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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KEYWORDS: female protagonist, epic fantasy, epic fantasy series, ya fantasy; sword and sorcery; coming of age; historical fantasy; SFF; YA series; enemies to friends
Moira Katson writes Fantasy and Science Fiction novels. Born and raised in the farmland of the eastern United States, she is now a transplant living in the oft-frigid wastes of the midwest, where she is learning to love hot dish, fried food on a stick, ice fishing, and the hilarious faces her friends make when she tells them about winter temperatures. ...just kidding, she has no intentions to learn how to ice fish. Despite the fact that she had been writing since childhood, Moira majored in nice, sensible subjects in college and went on to have a nice, sensible job, all the while continuing to write about dragons, courts, and spaceships. She has since bowed to the inevitable and begun releasing her work into the world! Her first book was released in 2012, and her current projects include Rise of Aiqasal and several projects under pen name Natalie Grey! To find out more about Moira and her upcoming works, visit her website, http://moirakatson.com, or find her on Facebook or twitter, @moirakatson! If you are a SciFi fan, she recommends that you try out The Dragon Corps (under pen name Natalie Grey) or Crucible, the first book in the Novum Trilogy. For fantasy fans, she recommends Shadowborn (the first book in the Light & Shadow series) or Bound Sorcery, the first book in her Shadows of Magic series under pen name Natalie Grey.