For long ages, the Kreelan race has been ruled by war. Only the priests and priestesses of the ancient martial orders have prevented the utter destruction of their kind. But a newly arisen ruler, the Dark Queen, seeks to destroy the ages-old equilibrium. All that stands before her is a child of prophecy, a child destined to unite their race. A child the Dark Queen must kill at any cost...

This is the second book of the First Empress saga, following From Chaos Born. Keel-Tath, the child who would unite her people as foretold by an ancient prophecy, has grown to be a young warrior in the confines of the Desh-Ka temple, where she has been sheltered by her old friend and mentor Ayan-Dar from the clutches of Syr-Nagath, the Dark Queen. But when Keel-Tath is forced to choose between sanctuary and her honor, she goes into exile, leaving behind a broken-hearted Ayan-Dar. Captured and bound in chains by those who serve the Dark Queen, she is rescued from an unspeakable fate by a warrior from the shadows. Thus begins Keel-Tath’s perilous journey to the ends of her war-ravaged world, through deadly wastelands and even deadlier seas, unaware that some of those she holds most dear stand ready to betray her…

In the final volume of THE FIRST EMPRESS Trilogy, the Kreelan warrior priesthoods, once charged with teaching and preserving the tenets of the Way, have sown the seeds of their own destruction by allying themselves with the Dark Queen and letting loose the ancient evil of Ka’i-Nur. All that stands against the looming darkness is young Keel-Tath and a handful of surviving priests and priestesses of the Desh-Ka. Battered and bloodied from their own brief, vicious civil war, their honor and swords are now bound to the Child of Prophecy, come what may.