Description:

It's coming up on Cajeiri's birthday. The boy has been promised he can have the young human children he knew from his voyage sent down from the space station for a two week stay.

But there's far a darker business going on in the background--a major split compromising the Assassins' Guild, which furnishes security and law enforcement to the whole continent.  Tabini's consort's own father has been barred from court, and may be involved in a new conspiracy against him.

For safety reasons, Tabini wants Bren and Ilisidi to take charge of Cajeiri, and protect him and his young guests. They themselves are very likely targets of whatever's going on, no question of it. So is Cajeiri. But having the targets separated and contained is an advantage.

It's Bren's responsibility to entertain the guests, keep the security problem secret...and let a lonely eight-year-old prince reestablish his controversial relationship with the only other children he's ever met...inside the best security they can manage.

**

Review

"One of the best long-running SF series in existence.... Cherryh remains one of the most talented writers in the field."—Publishers Weekly

"Some of the finest work of Cherryh's long and distinguished career."—Locus

"My favorite science fiction series is C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner Universe. Cherryh deftly balances alien psychology and human vanities in a character caught between being human and part of an alien race."—Denver Post

"There is plenty of intrigue…marvelous attention to detail that makes the culture of the atevi one of the most complex, multi-layered creations in science fiction…. The Foreigner series is about as good as it gets…so finely and densely wrought that you may end up dreaming of sable-skinned giants with gold eyes, and the silver spun delicacy of interstellar politics."—SF Site

"A seriously probing, thoughtful, intelligent piece of work, with more insight in half a dozen pages than most authors manage in half a hundred."—Kirkus

“Cherryh superbly crafts complex intrigues and alien races possessed of integrity, as well as a sense of otherness.”—Library Journal

“A large new Cherryh novel is always welcome...a return to the anthropological science fiction in which she has made such a name is a double pleasure.... Superlatively drawn aliens and characterization.”—Chicago Sun-Times

"C. J. Cherryh has developed this alien world, its associations, politics and conflicts, in such detail that it feels totally real."—Bookloons

"I'm happy to observe that after 14 volumes produced over a stretch of nearly 20 years, CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series continues to provide pleasures and even surprises.... Go find the first volume, Foreigner, and settle down for an extended period of happy immersion."—Locus (On Protector)

About the Author

C. J. Cherryh planned to write since the age of ten. When she was older, she learned to use a type writer while triple-majoring in Classics, Latin and Greek. At 33, she signed over her first three books to DAW and has worked with DAW ever since. She can be found at cherryh.com.