I just finished A Queen in Hiding by Sarah Kozloff

I just finished A Queen in Hiding by Sarah Kozloff, volume one of her Nine Realms series.

If there are two classes of people I despise it is the corrupt and the treacherous, which means those who are both have a very 'special' place in my heart. Thus, though the Waters still flow, hope drains from the common people of Weirandale as an aristocracy whose only interest is power and wealth suck the realm dry of mercy and decency. All while, ironically, Fire-worshiping religious maniacs pursue a war for food and a scholar prepare to take the fight to them. Yet princella Cerulia lives and, in her, hope remains. But the time for quiet hiding has passed.

 

"Though dusty sits the Nargis Throne

While tyrants befoul and bluster;

Though citizens do their yoke bemoan,

And the Fountain’s lost its luster:

Someday the drought shall be broken,

And the wondrous Waters course clean,

One dawn the words shall be spoken,

As the long-lost heir becomes queen."