Soo Chee was starving in a life of nomadic poverty. On the fringes of the Empire, protection is limited. The Empire is her salvation at the cost of her freedom, and the loss of her roots. The people that she meets become her family. Her first alliance is Amalia.The Empire teaches that the Long Road is the path of humanity toward an ideal. The Empire shows its citizens how to achieve that goal, but it also "terminates" roads that obstruct The Long Road. The Short Road is the individual's path.As children, Amalia and Soo Chee are contracted by the Shadow, the Emperor's terminators. Together they grow up in training, unusually gifted in stealth and battle. In the use of knives, they have no equal, and together they are unbeatable. Friends become sisters. When their role in the Empire changes, their lives are forever thrown off course. The decisions they make on their Short Roads and the paths they travel will have an effect on thousands of people in the Empire, and possibly around their world. Outside of the constraints of the Empire, will Soo Chee and Amalia continue on the Long Road or will they fall on the Short Road?