'An unforgettable wild journey set in re-imagined Vedic India' SF BOOK REVIEW 'Remarkable characterization and vivid worldbuilding... riveting epic fantasy' KIRKUS The Mathuran Republic is on the brink of oblivion. Bled dry by years of war with the Magadhan Empire, only the triple walls of its capital stand between it and annihilation. Now the Empire’s siege engines have fallen silent. Mathura may be out of funds and out of friends, but it is not yet out of fortune. A year-long funerary truce has been declared and Senator Krishna has an outside chance to save the caste-free republic he created. But Krishna is not the only player on the board. While Mathura and Magadh war, the neighbouring kingdoms of Kalinga, Panchal and Hastina jostle for supremacy: naive kings, sinister queens, pious assassins, predatory priests and strange foreigners dream of conquest, lust, avarice, revenge… and long-forgotten gods prepare to play their hand. ‘The ashes of light drift amidst corpses of stars, and the dead storm returns, with an echo of power… When the sun dies, the shadows will dance in a fiery coldness to welcome the Son of Darkness.’