At first, she thinks he’s just another honourless, dirty man that kills and steals for money but when she overhears the word rōnin and hears an old family name from the Emperor’s circle she thinks Ranmaru must be a masterless samurai or at least the son of one fallen from grace. Then she sees a young man who looks so out of place but who she thinks must be the leader, Takeda Ranmaru. Just days after Mariko escapes her plotted death she sits, drinking sáke and waiting for the Black Clan to show up so she can see their leader and find out why they want her dead.

She accepts her fate but on the way to meet her future husband, her convoy is attacked by the fearsome Black Clan and while many are killed she was their only target but also, the only survivor.

As a young woman, she rarely sees life outside of her home but she’s full of courage and bravery and unknown determination. She has no desire to do this and knows it will be a strain on her to take on this life but she also knows that she doesn’t have the luxury of choice as the daughter of the family and she must honour her parent’s wishes. Hattori Mariko is a seventeen-year-old teenage girl about to be married to Minamoto Riaden, the Prince and son of the Emperor’s favourite consort. But as Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets that will force her to question everything she’s ever known. Ranmaru and Okami warm to Mariko, impressed by her intellect and ingenuity. When she is ambushed by a group of bandits known as the Black Clan en route to a political marriage to Minamoto Raiden – the emperor’s son – Mariko realises she has two choices: she can wait to be rescued… or she can take matters into her own hands, hunt down the clan and find the person who wants her dead.ĭisguising herself as a peasant boy, Mariko infiltrates the Black Clan’s hideout and befriends their leader, the rebel ronin Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, Okami.

But Mariko is the daughter of a prominent samurai and a cunning alchemist in her own right, and she refuses to be ignored. Mariko has always known that being a woman means she’s not in control of her own fate.

Okami renee ahdieh