The Judgment of Needles

A celebration of the Empress of Salt and Fortune brings Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant to a palace where expensive robes preserve stories that official history has overlooked. An embroidered detail leads Chih toward an attempted assassination and the women whose lives were shaped by the court. The eighth Singing Hills novella can be read independently, offering a compact mystery about power, memory and the evidence left in everyday objects.

4 May 2027 · United States