Blood War — Connie Suttle

"Perhaps Lissa should raise the topic of Diplomatic Immunity at the Conclave."


"That, my friend, would be inadvisable. She is new and many will be waiting, as vultures do when an ox is dying."


"I know. At times, I feel the need to cover myself in oil, just to slip through the tripe and garbage of Wylend's court. Lissa will have to contend with five hundred times that when she goes to Conclave."


Death has come to Le-Ath Veronis. A would-be assassin, aiming at Lissa, manages to kill someone close to her instead. A price has been placed on Lissa's head by Black Mist, an assassin's guild, who have been paid by a reassembled Solar Red. Throw in a spin-off religion, betrayal, the Five-Year Conclave for the Reth Alliance and a misguided kidnapping, and you have the seeds of war.