THRONE OF ASHES by Al Alory_In the palace of Zaria-Kan, seven black stones speak the law._Blood before crown.__Son before daughter.__Queen must obey King.__Slave can never be free.__True crown must stay buried._Kael is seventeen and has never been seen. Born to a washerwoman, raised with a broom, he is the boy who sweeps footprints — the invisible sweeper who reads murder in dust.When Prince Jalen plants stolen gold in his mat and tries to have him buried behind Stone 7, Kael does not die. The grave holds another boy. And in the dark, he finds the first key.With Princess Zara — who wants to be King, not Queen — blind General Kuro, and eight-year-old Amin, the lost prince believed dead for two years, Kael must hunt seven keys with colored strings, open an iron chest under the throne, and wake the true crown: an iron crown with seven stones that can break the seven laws.But the palace is hungry.Second Queen returns from the north with 100 soldiers. Baka the kitchen rat wants revenge. And the true crown itself kills anyone who wears it at night — taking one life for one law.To become free, Kael must stop sweeping footprints and start leaving them. In blood.