The queen of Kashi: A widowed wages covert war to save her sacred kingdom from betrayal

Grief forged her crown. War will forge her legacy. Following the catastrophic loss of her husband and son on distant battlefields, Queen Gayatri Das defies court tradition to claim the throne of eighteenth-century Kashi. Amid the ruins of holy temples and fractured trade routes, she strives to transform her battered realm into a thriving refuge for the displaced. But sanctuary breeds envy. When an ancient, coded cylinder unearthed beneath sacred ruins exposes a web of treason, Gayatri discovers enemies lurking in her inner circle. Her own prime minister secretly schemes to surrender the holy city to foreign imperialists in exchange for immense wealth. Driven from her palace during a blood-soaked coup, Gayatri escapes into the maze of river ghats and subterranean catacombs. Now, stripped of her royal insignia, she must unite an unlikely band of allies-a hardened garrison commander, a ruthless black-market smuggler, and a lethal turncoat assassin. Balancing her compassionate spirit with the cunning steel of a general, Gayatri must wage an underground war to reclaim her throne before her beloved city falls to foreign conquerors forever.