"Queen Eleanor's gambit worked. Aemogen, for now, has been spared from the ruthless Imirillian army. But Eleanor is still a captive, and Prince Basaal is taking her into the North. As Eleanor is swept through the deserts of Imirillia to the magnificent city of Zarbadast, she begins to understand the contradictions Basaal must negotiate beneath the reign of the sadistic Emperor Shaamil. Having returned home, Prince Basaal again finds himself at war with his own conscience. Under the scrutiny of his father, the pressure of his brothers, and a fierce loyalty to his own people, Basaal doubts his ability to fulfill his impossible promise to Aedon: to help Eleanor escape. In a rich telling of culture, ritual, and choice, The Ruby Prince draws on the complexity of what honor means to both Eleanor and Basaal, who find themselves together, yet set against one another, in the enigmatic court of Zarbadast." -- page [4] of cover.