The Traitor Baru Cormorant

The Empire of Masks conquers Baru Cormorant’s home by changing its institutions, customs and permitted ways of living. Baru responds with a plan that requires concealing her hatred: enter the imperial administration and rise high enough to undermine it. Her assignment to Aurdwynn places her in another conquered land, where rebellion is gathering strength. The duchess Tain Hu draws her toward people whose ambitions may serve Baru’s own, while complicating the emotional restraint on which her strategy depends. Numbers, alliances and carefully hidden desires become tools in a struggle with consequences far beyond one country. To win the future she wants for her people, Baru must decide what she is willing to become.