Darna is just a guildswoman, or so she’d like to think, but her alleged father was the prince of a backwater province. Now he’s been assassinated, and her uncle has put a price on Darna’s head to secure his claim on the throne.

Darna takes her lover’s place in a job that will take her away from the city and, she hopes, away from assassins’ daggers. Her new employer, the prince, is irate to find that the able-bodied man he hired has been replaced by a limping woman. According to the contract, they’re stuck together for the year. The prince is arrogant, but also intelligent and well-read. As winter closes in, their late night conversations turn from sea walls to more intimate territory.

Meanwhile, the province’s lost dragon reappears, and even the prince can see it.

This book is the second in the Dragonsfall trilogy. It is recommended that you read The Defenders' Apprentice first. The story also refers back to some events which took place in the two prequel novels, Scrapplings and Priestess.