Sol had spent her entire life knowing that she was destined to become a courtesan for the King of Cabaral. She had grown up in a large house in the Free Plains, alongside scores of other girls who were her match in both beauty and cunning. They were each of them born for the same purpose. To be lovers to important men, confidantes, spies, and traitors. Sol was not afraid of her future, though she knew it would be dangerous. She had been raised to live for the mission and, if necessary, die for it.
Sol’s auburn hair and glass-gray eyes were exactly suited to the king’s taste. If they hadn’t been, she would have been sent somewhere else, to some other rich man’s side. She considered the other girls her sisters, for though they did not look alike, they shared an intensity of purpose usually
