Hunter has been a soldier, monk, rebel, thief, and kingmaker - or queenmaker, to be precise. Now he wants nothing more than to settle down with Marna, his long-lost daughter, and to court lovely Dahlia Rancher. Hunter's quick trip to fetch Marna unravels when he and Chekwe, his best friend, arrive at Hunter’s ancestral home to discover that Marna has been kidnapped. The friends track Marna to their old battlefield haunts in the north, dogged by old foes and finding new enemies every step of the way: seers and necromancers, warlords and heretics, once-dead warriors and renegade pacifists. Their only friend is Dru, a woman pushed out of her job as a constable by men returning from the Orgooth wars. With Dru’s help and the grudging support of a new king, Hunter builds a force capable of rescuing Marna. It’s a plan that just might work, if the Orgooth don’t jump into the fray too. But with Chekwe and his pet kitten on the prowl for whisky, milk, and something to kill, nothing Hunter plans is certain.

Hunter is a soldier-turned-monk, sworn to bring down the Kistrill Empire by stealing Kingmaker: an enchanted sword and the royal family’s most precious talisman of power. His best friend, Chekwe, is just the sort of vicious fighter to help Hunter pull off the theft and keep the stolen blade hidden. Hiding in the mountain jungles of Orzan should be easy, except for two women who are as determined to find Hunter as he is to hide. Tennea is Hunter’s sister, and as the Emperor’s crack manhunter she’s sworn to retrieve Kingmaker and bring Hunter and Chekwe to justice. She’s got a company of elite cavalry and a bag of enchanted tricks to help, and she’s tightening the noose. Even worse, she knows Hunter’s weakness: his bruised and lonely heart. Dahlia is a widow who’ll stop at nothing to protect her son and save her ranch from goblin raids, and she’ll get help from Hunter whether he wants to or not. Even as rum-fueled goblin raids boil over into full-scale war and Orzan’s petty tyrants get in on the scramble to get ahold of Kingmaker, Hunter still might be able to keep his oath and keep Kingmaker safe. That is, as long as Chekwe can control his thirst to try Kingmaker’s mysterious powers for himself...