VEILED KALIS by Tyree Campbell

Vowing revenge for her mother’s murder at the hands of slave traffickers, Amaria Hoban undergoes three years of intensive training by her father, a highly skilled assassin now retired. Her father works for Temmen, a criminal organization with a conscience, and arranges for Amaria to do courier work. She begins to wear a veil, and she arms herself with a short sword; for an identity she adopts the name Veiled Kalis. All too soon, she is introduced to the seamier side of a malignant slave-trafficking organization. She believes this will lead her to learn the identity of her mother’s murderer, and she goes underground in the slave pipeline to reach the man responsible. The path is fraught with perils, attacks, and betrayal, and at times she even doubts herself. Then a young slave girl, whom Veiled Kalis freed and then adopted, proves good skill as an artist. Among her sketches drawn from memory of her slave time is the face of the murderer.