The Dreadlord’s Accountant by Piers Furney

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Abigail Ashhurst was born to inherit a frozen empire. Unfortunately, she was also born with a conscience and a genuine talent for accounting, two qualities her ruthless dreadlord mother never forgave. After a family tragedy left the throne of the Arcane Tundra drenched in ash and expectation, Abigail fled south. Now she lives in the blazing desert of the Timeless Sands, with a mountain of gambling debts and a deeply unhelpful frost sylph named Kovon living under her sink.Those debts buy her an unusual kind of servitude. Indentured to Dreadlord Kyfaz, Abigail has one job: refill the dangerously empty treasury of Aarkand before the annual state tribute comes due. Simple on paper. In practice, it means squeezing coin out of squabbling dreadsworn houses, arguing with ministers who treat a balanced budget as a personal insult, and keeping powerful jinn aristocrats from sabotaging each other long enough to actually pay their taxes.Then the bodies start turning up. Demons are found butchered across the desert and its cities, carved with ancient ritual symbols that nobody at court will discuss out loud. Whispers of rebellion drift through Aarkand's gilded halls, and Kyfaz is preparing for ...

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