<p><b>Some believe the Ambhan Empire is cursed. But Arwa doesn''t simply believe it - she knows it''s true.</b><br><br>Widowed by the infamous, unnatural massacre at Darez Fort, Arwa was saved only by the strangeness of her blood - a strangeness she had been taught all her life to suppress. She offers up her blood and service to the imperial family and makes common cause with a disgraced, illegitimate prince who has turned to forbidden occult arts to find a cure to the darkness hanging over the Empire.<br><br>Using the power in Arwa''s blood, they seek answers in the realm of ash: a land where mortals can seek the ghostly echoes of their ancestors'' dreams. But the Emperor''s health is failing, and a terrible war of succession hovers on the horizon, not just for the imperial throne, but for the magic underpinning Empire itself.<br><br>To save the Empire, Arwa and the prince must walk the bloody path of their shared past, through the realm of ash and into the desert, where the cause of