The Girl Who Wrote on Water

Sometimes a catastrophe isn't the worst of your problems As dust settles on the buried kingdom of Ymittos, Princess Derya faces a horrifying conclusion: her friend Princess Eliana has perished after failing to break an evil sorcerer's curse. Which means the next obstacle in the plot to enslave the continent is Derya's father — the Emperor of Cinar.  When the emperor tasks Derya with forming a crucial alliance, her only way forward is to race the sorcerer in a hunt for the magical scepter he lost a millennium ago. If he retrieves it, he'll be unstoppable in his quest to dominate the world. Seeking the scepter in barbarian-controlled territory could cost Derya her life.But if she refuses the quest, she loses her right to the empire.And if she fails, there won't be an empire left to inherit.