From the moment when Rowene, the ruling Lady of Gwynyr, agreed to stand as her Goddess Mother, high-born, golden-eyed psychic Chene Viqar seemed destined to a life of power and prestige in the Old Path highlands of Darbas. Instead, her shocking abduction and murder turned 13-year-old Chene into a national martyr -- and hardened Gwynyrian sentiment against the radical separatists from rich and rebellious Llyr Province.
All of which made Chene’s return to insular Gwynyr seven years later -- dressed as a humble lowland nomad, and with no memory of her teenage years -- a national controversy. With her native psychic gifts as strangely absent as her memories, 20-year-old Chene has no choice but to abandon her prospects for a glamorous future and become a working “Woman of the Mind” like her mother, Chief Justice Jalte Viqar.
She’s a pragmatic young defense attorney with a promising future when an unusual assignment changes everything: An elite warrior monk, sworn to Lady Rowene’s service, has confessed to murdering a priestess in Llyr, and Chene must travel to the provincial capital to represent him. It’s an open and shut case… if she can just ignore the mounting evidence that every word of her new client’s confession is a carefully crafted lie.