The sixteenth novel in Cherryh's Foreigner space opera series, a
groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences...
It's been a year of upheaval, since Bren Cameron's return from space--a
year when he and the aiji-dowager, one of his most powerful atevi
allies, returned home from their two-year interstellar mission to find
the government overthrown and their world in chaos.
Now, at last, things are calming down; the Assassins' Guild is
functioning again, working out its internal difficulties, and Bren is
settling back into his routine: not as Lord of the Heavens; not--to his
regret--as Lord of Najida peninsula, where his leisure estate is
located; but as paidhi-aiji, an official in the atevi court.
His current ambition is to keep himself and his bodyguard out of harm's
way, and to shepherd the aiji-dowager's daring new trade agreement
through the appropriate legislative committees. Combined with
Tabini-aiji's recent appointment of his young son Cajeiri as his
official heir, Bren's workload is challenging, but at least things on
the atevi world seem to be on the right track.
Something is coming, however, quietly, stealthily, just the first
ominous twinkle of a new star in the heavens....