Prologue

When Kestrel LeStarre enters the AnnualCrown, a tournament designed to allow those of low birth to rise to the aristocracy of Frelpasd, she has high hopes of winning, despite her young age. But when it begins she sees that it is more than just fencing, more than, in fact, even politics. She will have to fight for her life in more ways than one, and by the end she will never be the same.