Pursuit of Power

In a world where women experience the absence of power, they must create their own. In Masunbria, a land of calculating royals and imperial politics, any daughter born with royal blood is presented as a child bride—an offering to a cruel culture that waged war in the land for centuries. Upon the birth of their first child—a daughter named Magdalena—the King and Queen of Masunbria resolve to keep her gender a secret and raise her as a prince they call Haluk. For twenty years the truth remains safe, and Haluk is celebrated as heir to the throne. That is until their second born, a son, Niklaus, discovers the true nature of Prince Haluk. Enraged at the betrayal and the loss of a throne that rightfully belongs to him, Niklaus reveals the treachery to his uncle Henrick — a mercurial tyrant with delusions of world domination. Henrick, with his force-of-nature wife, Thea, and his enchanting mistress Catrain by his side, convinces Niklaus to murder the king and queen and use Magdalena as a pawn to gain an alliance with the fiercest warriors ever to exist – the Typhans. Magdalena, on the run and without the respect and protection her male identity had once provided, begins to learn the truth—her brother and uncle will stop at nothing for greed and glory, even at the cost of innocent lives. Together with an aging military man, a barkeep and an escaped Typhan whom she finds herself inexplicably drawn to, Magdalena soon discovers that Haluk can't save her people —but she can.