In this volume of the Tales of Inthya, the patron gods/goddesses work out supernatural conflicts through their gifted champions on the mortal plane. 13 years kave passed since the events of Daughter of the Sun, and we get a glimpse of Orsina and Aelia, who are called to a new chapter in an old conflict: heavily militarized Xytae, under the protection of the Goddess of War, undergoes a crisis of succession when the Emperor is killed in a frontier war, and the throne must be claimed against her ferocious middle sister by his inexperienced, scholarly elder daughter, anomalously gifted by the God of Justice. The story is about how the young Empress gets her mojo, with supernatural help, and the unexpected assistance of a visiting foreign princess who just happened to be at right place at the right time, where she did the right thing, though she thought she’d only come to Xytae to annoy her father and party her time away. Scott Wlazlo’s narration in all of these books is spot-on, convincingly modulated for male, female, neutroi, young, old, human and divine voices (the encounter with the child-bandits and the priest of the god of domestic animals is especially endearing). Calvin’s language is chaste, with fade-to-black love scenes, but emotions are vivid, and the world-building is very compelling. 5 stars-+.