When his sovereign and friend was killed, Ehren, favored King's Guard, was far away-sent on a wild goose chase by the First Level Ministry, whose number he now believes must contain at least one traitor. When he's ordered to stop his investigation, and sent to find and destroy stray branches of the royal family tree instead, his suspicions deepen to near certainty. And he is determined to find the exiles-but only so that he may guard them with his life.