The Last Consort of the Palace Judge

Yan nearly falls when the hem of her robe catches on the palace step, and that small pain matters more than the bruise on her ankle. She has no family behind her and no title worth naming twice. What she does have is a head full of late Ming history and a sharp sense for who survives when a court starts to rot from inside. She watches every servant, every seal, every promise, and she does not lie to herself about what each favor costs. Her dance power only works when people are watching, so every practice is a risk and every audience is a knife edge. The handkerchief with three stitched letters keeps turning up in places it should not be, and Yan knows that kind of repeat never stays small f...