From the Carnegie Medal-winning author of Buffalo Soldier comes the story of a young girl struggling to change the course of her fate.

From the Carnegie Medal-winning author of Buffalo Soldier comes the story of a young girl struggling to change the course of her fate as the once mighty Aztec Empire collapses around her. In the golden city of Tenochtitlan, the people live in fear of the gods; to keep them at bay, they are prepared to pay a toll in blood. Itacate, a girl born under an ill-fated sky, is destined for a life of submission and domestic drudgery. But her father, a goldsmith, discovers her talent for his craft, and so she begins to work as his apprentice in secret. When Spanish raiders invade the city, she finds herself at risk of being exposed. Can she escape her destiny and survive in this harsh new world?

"reveals a small part of the little known Aztec civilisation in an absorbing novel." - Viewpoint

"This is an absorbing tale that evokes how it may have felt to live in the time of Cortes and Montezuma." - The Newcastle Herald