After captivating readers with her Chronicles of the Warlands trilogy, Elizabeth Vaughan now returns to that world with a beguiling tale of daggers and destiny. . . She is a mercenary trained in the ways of war and the blade—nothing more. A woman known only as Red Gloves has come to the land of Palins in search of work. What she finds, however, is the torched fields and razed farms of a land defiled. If you see her without the gloves, run... This is all Josiah knows about the mysterious woman—until he catches a glimpse of the dagger-star birthmark, a sign that she is destined to free his people from a ruthless usurper's reign of terror. But she is more dangerous when following her heart... Red doesn't believe in gods. Nevertheless, she finds herself drawn into the rebellion—not by the prophecy or the chance to win the throne, but by the pain of untold loss in Josiah's eyes...