Her Silent Vengeance

Serene Gibson grew up as the daughter of General Ryker Gibson. Her uncle Stanley Gibson arranged the deaths of her parents, and she was taken into his household. She looked very much like her dead mother, so Stanley kept her confined near him, and her aunt and cousin beat and humiliated her. Her grandmother's protection kept her alive, and she behaved as though she had accepted her place. What she wanted was the blood debt paid. At her cousin's wedding she showed what she could do, and the head of the shadow guards, Herrick, noticed her. To reach the throne room she needed standing, so she took lessons from the music master Song Jing, worked at the zither until she was granted the title of musician, and used it to get close to the court. She made an ally of Herrick and worked with Herric Xi as well, taking apart her uncle's arrangements a piece at a time. Her father had left behind a secret about a salt mine. Serene used it as bait, and it drew out proof that the marquis had been dealing with the enemy. Her uncle's madness, her aunt's plotting and her foster brother's interference all stood in the way. The last of the evidence turned up in Longxian, on the frontier.