A negotiator who uses herself as a bargaining chip. An adventurous spirit trapped by her culture and family. A resistance fighter leading her captors into a trap. A reclusive horse trainer swept into a quest for treasure. An elderly, overlooked servant smuggling slaves out of her country. A woman with a gift that seems like far more trouble than it’s worth. A princess whose arranged marriage puts her in the hands of pirates. A shepherdess fighting to save her sister. A belly-dancing assassin who fakes her targets’ deaths. These are the women of Kern — the sort of women who in our own world are all too often ignored, overlooked, forgotten, and silenced by history. Enter their world of magic, adventure, and romance through nine short stories and novellas driven by women with the strength and courage to shape their own destinies.