About Ophir

Ophir is a hot, humid jungle kingdom of ceiba and rubber trees, mango groves, apes, peacocks and lions. Its wealth is legendary: gold, ivory, sandalwood and pearls, carried down the Golden Road to the port of Padua and shipped every three years to Cape Guard under a trade deal the kingdom has come to regret. Queen Makeda rules from Arash Bilqis, the Throne of Sheba, raised twenty feet above the River Sentience before six pillars and a temple to Almaqah, the moon god, whose symbol is the bull.

Below the throne lie the Well Cells, a prison with no bars where prisoners can hear the world go on without them. Makeda's son, Menelik, is fourteen, not a warrior, and convinced that a secret cave on the Penumbran border can unite two kingdoms that have never trusted each other. His father's identity is the most closely guarded secret in Ophir, and King Jedidiah of Cape Guard wants to know it more than anyone.