When fourteen-year-old samurai apprentice Seikei is sent on a mission by the shogun, he believes it is a simple one: convince the fourteen-year-old emperor to resume his ceremonial duties. But when the emperor is kidnapped in an elaborate plot to overthrow the shogun, Seikei's task becomes much more complicated—and dangerous. With the help of a servant girl who believes Seikei is the emperor, and a mysterious old man who joins the quest, Seikei finds that he must rescue the emperor before the sacred sword, said to give immense power to anyone who carries it, falls into the wrong hands. Should Seikei fail, bloodshed will stain the land. In this, the fourth book in the Samurai Detective Series, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler have constructed a thriller that will have the pages turning far into the night.