Eight centuries ago, in the latter days of the Islamic golden age, a young girl arrived in the Khwarazmian city of Tus. She was a slave. But she learned. Eight centuries ago, the Mongols blazed across the map, swept Khwarazm into the ash heap of history, and took all they desired from the ruins. They took the girl who learned. So begins the true story of how a “witch,” wielding knowledge as her only weapon, came to hold the greatest empire the world has ever known in the palm of her hand…
Eight centuries ago, in the latter days of the Islamic golden age, a young girl arrived in the Khwarazmian city of Tus. She was a slave. But she learned. Eight centuries ago, the Mongols blazed across the map, swept Khwarazm into the ash heap of history, and took all they desired from the ruins. They took the girl who learned. So begins the true story of how a “witch,” wielding knowledge as her only weapon, came to hold the greatest empire the world has ever known in the palm of her hand…
Sitara lost everything when the Mongols invaded Tus. The kind mistress who treated her like a daughter, the books she had come to love, her hopes for the future—all burned to ash and pierced by swords and arrows. Now she stands on the strange and distant steppe where, after working her way into the Mongol court, she bitterly accepts a life of comfort while biding her time until the moment for vengeance arrives. With Genghis Khan dead and a Grand Kurultai called to decide on the next emperor, it seems the circumstances are ripe for her revenge!
Sitara lost everything when the Mongols invaded Tus. The kind mistress who treated her like a daughter, the books she had come to love, her hopes for the future—all burned to ash and pierced by swords and arrows. Now she stands on the strange and distant steppe where, after working her way into the Mongol court, she bitterly accepts a life of comfort while biding her time until the moment for vengeance arrives. With Genghis Khan dead and a Grand Kurultai called to decide on the next emperor, it seems the circumstances are ripe for her revenge!
After losing her country and mistress in the invasion of the Mongol empire, Fatima has leveraged her education to become a lady-in-waiting to Sorghaghtani Beki in the Mongols’ imperial court. Dispatched to infiltrate a rival court as her new mistress’s spy, Fatima encounters Töregene, one of the wives of emperor Ögedei Khaan. The two women, bound together by a shared desire for revenge against the Mongols, vow to work together. Before long, they’ll call a storm that radically shifts the power balance of the mightiest empire in the world…
After losing her country and mistress in the invasion of the Mongol empire, Fatima has leveraged her education to become a lady-in-waiting to Sorghaghtani Beki in the Mongols’ imperial court. Dispatched to infiltrate a rival court as her new mistress’s spy, Fatima encounters Töregene, one of the wives of emperor Ögedei Khaan. The two women, bound together by a shared desire for revenge against the Mongols, vow to work together. Before long, they’ll call a storm that radically shifts the power balance of the mightiest empire in the world…
Fatima is shaken by the sudden death of her archnemesis, Tolui, the hero of the conquest of Jin. House Tolui’s might had been a heavy weight disturbing the balance of power in the Empire—now the scales have flipped on their head. In this new unstable world, Fatima finds herself being headhunted by the empress Boraqchin, who wants her sharp mind to help draw up plans for expanding the Empire… But the whole situation still feels wrong to Fatima, who runs off to save Töregene, currently under arrest due to suspicions that she poisoning the Khaan!
Fatima is shaken by the sudden death of her archnemesis, Tolui, the hero of the conquest of Jin. House Tolui’s might had been a heavy weight disturbing the balance of power in the Empire—now the scales have flipped on their head. In this new unstable world, Fatima finds herself being headhunted by the empress Boraqchin, who wants her sharp mind to help draw up plans for expanding the Empire… But the whole situation still feels wrong to Fatima, who runs off to save Töregene, currently under arrest due to suspicions that she poisoning the Khaan!