Mask of Shadows

Gender-fluid Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and to get closer to the nobles who destroyed home. So when auditions to become a member of The Left Hand - the Queen's personal assassins - are announced, Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge. But a childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the audition: a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers.

As Opal, Sal finally has the power, prestige, and, most importantly, the ability to hunt the lords who killed their family. But Sal has to figure out who the culprits are before putting them down - which means trying to ignore the fact that Elise is being kept a virtual prisoner and that the queen may have ulterior motives. And the tales coming out of north are baffling. Talk of dark spirits, missing children, and magic abound. As Sal heads north toward their ruined homeland and the lords who destroyed everything, they learn secrets and truths that can't be ignored.