In the Aramtesh Empire scent is all important, and seventeen-year-old Rakel has a way with perfumes which she hopes to use to delay her father's inevitable death; Ash is a member of the imperial bodyguard, assigned to the crown prince Nisai's bodyguard; now they are all brought together on a caravan to an outer province, seeking a rare flower that can cure the poisoned emperor--but when Nisai himself is poisoned Rakel and Ash smell like the chief suspects, and they must search out the answers together before the imperial army hunts them down.