A predator can afford a mistake. Prey cannot. Regent Erchtria's people are prey. The maw of a vast, decadent Empire surrounds her precious few worlds from all sides, ready to swallow them whole.Outnumbered beyond hope, she must seek allies in a galaxy where politicians and assassins speak in ultrasounds, in the colors of their shimmering skins, even with words from their mouths.From desperate freedom fighters on a remote desert world, to the calculating senators of an interstellar superpower, she must persuade them all, or manipulate them, into joining her cause.