As the realm crumbles, she falls from the lofty palace halls into the muddy snow below. In return for a bowl of food that saved her life, she assumes another identity and infiltrates the enemy camp, concealing her real name amid blades and schemes. From the foul water of the stables to conspiracies in the army tents, from an arrow wound in her shoulder to the game of strategy in her palm, she uses the hand that moves the pieces to carve out her own path through the flames of war.
But the sharpest blade in the world cannot cut through the heaviest shackles: bloodline and ambition become entangled, gratitude and betrayal coexist, and the fate of the nation is pitted against the life of one person… When every road is stained red, only she stands at the heart of the game, holding the pieces in her hand. Once the move is made, there is no regret, and no way back.
