Why is the Empress willing to sacrifice one of her few close friends by putting her on trial on a capital charge? Why does my friend not want to defend herself and refuses a lawyer? Why do her friends, who have real power and might, remain inactive? Because they are waiting for the former assassin Vlad Taltosh to appear on the scene and fix everything. Is Vlad himself so wrong in believing that this scene was created specifically for him? After all, this is happening in the capital, and the reward for his head is still in force...

The twelfth novel from the “Vlad Taltosh” series, the action takes place four years after “Dzur.”