by Cheryl S. Ntumy (Author)

Evil spreads throughout the Kingdom,
and the one woman who can save them may be the key to their survival
... or their destruction.

Anyi is the gem of the Countless Clans.
Their Queens make lifeblood, a magical substance used for everything
from medicine to weapons. Once, Anyi had so much lifeblood that they
gave it away. Now their Queen is dying, none of her daughters, the
Diviewe, can produce lifeblood and the gods that guide the clan have
gone silent.In the Empire of Ka, Anyi native Aseye dreams of leaving
her work at the imperial armory to strike out on her own. Kwame, a
spy with a hidden heritage, is a charming distraction. A man of
conflicting loyalties, he's not to be trusted with Aseye's heart
- or her secret, buried so deep that even she doesn't remember
it. A secret that could end her life.As Anyi's lifeblood dwindles,
the Diviewe beg the Elders to unleash an ancient weapon to save the
clan. The Elders refuse. The Diviewe take matters into their own
hands. But the weapon is not what they thought it would be, and it's
not the only thing to wake...

Cheryl S. Ntumy is a Ghanaian
writer of speculative fiction, young adult fiction, and romance. Her work has appeared in FIYAH
Literary Magazine; Apex Magazine; World Literature Today; Best
of World SF Vol. 3 and Year's Best African
Speculative Fiction 2022, among others. Her work has also been
nominated for the Nommo Award for African Speculative Fiction, the British
Science Fiction Association Award, the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize and the Miles
Morland Foundation Scholarship. She is part of the Sauútiverse Collective, which created
a shared universe for Afrocentric speculative fiction, and a member of Petlo Literary Arts, an
organization that develops and promotes creative writing in Botswana. Her Sauútiverse
novella Songs for the Shadows was released in 2024 by Atthis Arts and her short story collection Black Friday: Short
Stories from Africa (Beyond and Within) was published in
April 2025 by Flame Tree Press.

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