To Chart the Clouds

Miya Isami is a conscientious clerk at the Imperial Cartographic Bureau, but her work is overlooked, and her older colleagues, wedded to established methods, openly mock the new triangulation technique she has developed for mapmaking. When her method reveals a stretch of land missing from the official charts along the frontier between the Scorpion and Lion Clans, she realizes the problem runs far deeper than a simple error on paper.

The discovery could finally resolve the long-running territorial dispute between the Lion, a proud and combative people, and the Scorpion, who keep their affairs hidden. Hoping to head off open war, an Imperial Treasurer sends Isami into the Spine of the World with her findings. The mountain clans are not glad to see her.

She must bargain between the rival clans, get to the bottom of what has happened, and locate a hidden valley while a fragile peace teeters on the edge of collapse. The novel is a fantasy epic set in the world of the Legend of the Five Rings setting.