To win the heart of a prince, one warrior offers her beautiful face, while another sacrifices her soul. Must one of them die to save the other two?

In the blood-soaked mud of the 16th-century borderlands, one woman's wit is sharper than her blade—but neither can save her from a love built on a lie.

Moo Hring is the finest duelist in Vimaya, a warrior-poet with a tongue like a razor and a heart hidden behind a face the court mocks. She has spent her life in the shadows, nursing a secret love for Prince Preah Ponhea Chan—the only man who understands the power of a verse.

But the Prince's eyes are for Sorya, a stunning recruit who lacks the words to match his passion. Moo Hring makes a devastating pact: she will ghostwrite Sorya's declarations of love. She will pour her soul into the words that will win the Prince for another woman.

As the Ayutthayan army closes in, the delicate dance of the court is shattered by the brutal rhythm of swords. Forced onto the frontlines, Moo Hring must navigate a landscape of shifting loyalties and deadly swamps. Every letter she writes is a stay of execution for her heart, but as the war demands a final sacrifice, the truth can no longer be hidden in ink.

In the tradition of The Song of Achilles and She Who Became the Sun, Lotus, Mud, Blade is a lyrical, heartbreaking retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac where the stakes are as sharp as a blade and the confession is written in blood.

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