The empire calls it order. The people call it survival.
Aya has spent eighteen years learning one lesson: in Timbuktu, the poor exist only to serve the powerful. Beaten by the woman who should have loved her, forbidden to pursue her dream of becoming a warrior, and surrounded by a monarchy that treats commoners as disposable, she has learned to keep her head down?even while her heart burns for revolution.
Everything changes during the Kehleh Seli, the Festival of Combat.
In a world where kings rule through fear, warriors fight for the amusement of the wealthy, and freedom is worth more than life itself, one young woman may become the spark that ignites a revolution.