Bøger i Prisoner of the Mind serien

Sometimes patriots come together for all the wrong reasons Aila Perrin was an experiment gone right; a young teen held against her will and trained to open diplomatic relations with the Kerasi Empire, grand enemies of her Planetary Union. Four years later, Aila's eighteen and doing the impossible: after years of increasing trust, the two governments have agreed to a face-to-face diplomatic accord on Kerasím for the first time in history. Aila is thrilled to be chosen as one of the delegates, one of her old Kerasi mentor/captors along as her guard and guide - and maybe more. But as the accord begins its historic mission, Kerasím falls under a coup, and all bets are off as delegates are being assassinated under the safest conditions possible. It's a whole new learning experience when Aila finds herself on the run on a planet in turmoil, where old Kerasi enemies are turning out to be her best friends and her Union colleagues just may be the people trying to take her life. While she criticizes the Kerasi for being cold-blooded killers, will Aila be able to do the same when her own life is on the line?

Tokh dar-Giláhn wanted nothing more than to walk around his town as one of the proud military cadets on Graduation Day, with a dashing uniform and sword. When he's snatched from the Academy by a perceptive General before he can graduate, Tokh's life begins an upward spiral toward power and glory that he never anticipated. Tokh is forced to balance his climbing military career against an explosive personal life that wants to hold him back: a wife he didn't want, sons who won't respect his will, a second wife he never intended, children younger than his grandchildren, and the accidental acquisition of his first true love, a blinded teenaged consort; a combination of women that threatens to tear everything apart. As Tokh's success on the Emperor's Emissary Project sends him ever deeper into palace politics and tenuous diplomatic relations with the Planetary Union, he starts to believe in the Emperor's treasonous vision: why shouldn't a female take the throne of Kerasím? And why shouldn't his daughter be educated to be her first advisor?

Nineteen year old Aila swore to her mother she wouldn't marry Masákh until she turns twenty-one, and she meant it. She also swore when she left Kerasím last year she would return to visit her friend Mímihn for the New Year celebration, and no matter what her mother says, Aila means to do it. She believes whole-heartedly in the Kerasi, and in Emperor Nághtas's plan to put his daughter Rimas on the throne after him. But Mímihn insists that if Aila is truly her friend, she and Masákh will get married now so Mímihn can be there, and Aila fears the pressures could destroy the fragile peace treaties between their worlds if she says no. Just when Aila must return to the Union, Masákh undertakes a troubling task that he can't discuss. Aila must either wait on Kerasím or leave without him - if she's ever granted permission. Making matters worse, Mímihn's past is threatening to harm her, if her fear doesn't kill her first. Aila is pulled into the web of deceit and treachery undermining Kerasím, and only through disaster does she realize just how big the struggle is for Kerasím to ever change. Aila's grip on the tightrope of diplomacy is slipping, and so is her loyalty - but to which side?