Having won a tough competition, Selene Sardotine, the most famous female assassin in the Ardalan kingdom, receives the title of royal protector. This position is honorable and dangerous, because the king’s soul is blacker than tar, and his iron hand knows no mercy. Selena knows this well, but the secret goal, which she hides even from her closest friends and for the sake of which she won, is higher than any danger... The novel is being published in Russian for the first time.