When Iltani returns home after four years away training to become Ishtar’s Blade, she finds the Gryphon Court much changed. Ditanu, her childhood friend, is now a stoic king surrounded by governors who plot treason and noblewomen who seek to beguile him. But the greatest threat is Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, who desires to make Ditanu her consort and seize his kingdom for her own.