Masques

"Disguise your passion in masque; when the dance ends, peril begins." It's nearly fourteen years since the Norsunder War ended. But peacetime still has surprises for The Trouble With Kings' second gen, especially those with high ambitions. Sky Szinzar, Princess of Ralanor Veleth, has loyally insisted on the betrothal she made to Lexan Glenereth, a landless boy with no prospects, when they were kids. Her peers utterly scorn a "betrothal" she formed at age twelve—a scorn led by sarcastic Prince Garian-Rafael. Now it's fourteen years later, and Sky is finally holding her coming-of-age ball, which is spectacularly ruined by her abduction. On horseback. Right off the ballroom floor . . . by the prince she hates most. A wager or a lark? And while she's dealing with the fire and ice Rafael sparks every time they are together, Lexan comes back. Cool. Competent. Inscrutable, and oh so compelling. And the man Rafael hates the most. . . When rivalry (courtship?) between him and her and him (or is that him and him and her?) wears the guise of high politics in these postwar years, the dance soon gets wild. This cozy romantic fantasy comedy of manners stands alone.