C. J Cherryh

While the world of the atevi fragments into two antagonistic political camps. eight-year-old Cajeiri, the heir of Tabini-aiji--and the first atevi to have an understanding of the humans--becomes a target for those who oppose his father's rule.

"Alpha Station, orbiting the world of the atevi, has taken aboard five thousand human refugees from a destroyed station in a distant sector of space. With supplies and housing stretched to the breaking point, it is clear that the refugees must be relocated down to the planet, and soon. But not to the atevi mainland: rather to the territory reserved for humans, the island of Mospheira. Tabini-aiji, the powerful political head of the atevi, tasks his...

After making planetfall on the world of Mosphiera, Bren and Ilisidi meet Lord Tatiseigi, an old ally, and, while protecting Tibini's son and heir, find themselves in the middle of a civil war led by Lord Murini.

Bren Cameron, diplomat in residence, usually represents the ruler of the atevi state. But Ilisidi, the dowager, has been known to borrow his services from time to time--and she has her own notions how to solve the simmering hostilities in the south of the atevi continent, playing one problem against another.

"For years, the stations of the Hinder Stars, those old stations closest to Sol, have lagged behind the great megastations of the Beyond, like Pell and Cyteen. But new opportunities and fears arise when Alpha station receives news of an incoming ship with no identification. The denizens of Alpha wait anxiously for news about the outsiders, each with their own suspicions about the ship and its origins. Ross and Fallon, crew members of the Galway, believe...

Two friends become trapped in a veil of suspicion in a futuristic cybernetic world.

"The overthrow of the Atevi head of state, Tabini-aiji, and the several moves of enemies even since his restoration, have prompted major changes in the Assassins' Guild, which has since worked to root out its seditious elements - a clandestine group they call the Shadow Guild. With the Assassins now rid of internal corruption, with the birth of Tabini's second child, and with the appointment of an heir, stability seems to have returned to the Atevi...