His Unquiet Kingdom

Prince Aurel Vask has been dead for eleven years. His kingdom has not noticed. He sits the black throne by daylight, signs laws, eats dinner with his court — and every night the unquiet dead of his realm rise to petition him in a language only he can speak. Mara Aldane is the census-taker sent by the empire to prove that the kingdom cannot govern itself. What she finds is a nation whose harvests are too good, whose people are quietly wrong, and whose prince cannot be killed because he has already been. Aurel tells her the truth on their second meeting. The empire's annexation would tear his dead loose. Mara's report will condemn him. Between them, they will lie to an emperor, marry across a living and a dead court, and finish the census no other hand has dared to complete.