Their lust could bind them for life... Just when the lovely Belavalari has given up on Merin—the dashing general to whom she lost her maidenhead—he appears in her native village, with orders from the emperor to return with Bela as a prospective empress. Fearless and skilled with her magical sword, Bela embodies everything Merin could want in a soldier. Except that she's female. And already married—he's horrified to learn—to him. For her own reasons, Bela drugged him all those years ago and performed the Turi marital rite. Now, to sever the bond forever, Bela and Merin must remain bound together by a short rope for twenty-two days—and twenty-two nights. That is, if they don't kill each other first. But on the horizon looms a cutthroat enemy. Now the pair will have to rely on each other—and the magical sword—to make it through alive and to experience the strength of the ties that bind.