So, let me give you a slightly fuller understanding of what it's all about. The place is Ghezrat, a city devoted to the earth goddess Denota (the whole thing reminds me of the Eastern Mediterranean, if you want to know). On the day of the spring festival, Denota gives the people a warning that the armies of the Diye Haff are going to attack sometime soon, led there by the followers of their own lion god, Axtekeles.
Our main character is Breyd, a young girl who is chosen with her father to be mystically bound together into a powerful, goddess-blessed fighting force. She accepts the call in spite of the vision of the future she's seen, a future which includes the death of her father and, she presumes, herself.
The contrast to Breyd is Apodain, a young nobleman who desperately wants to join the battle to protect his city, but is prevented by his over-protective, scheming mother. He has no choice but to stand by and watch—and be named coward by all and sundry.
Sometimes I think I might catch a few glimpses into what started a story growing in the mind of the author, and this is one of those times. I may be entirely wrong, but this reads like something that a person would write after hearing too many times that earth goddesses are all weak women, good for nothing but crops and babies. Of course a lion god would totally beat an earth goddess. Accept, of course, that he wouldn't, as Roberta Cray demonstrates most conclusively. It's my thing with bullies again; I really do enjoy watching them get royally beaten by people they had intended to intimidate.
A lot of the story is about Breyd and Apodain sort of dealing with the uncomfortable positions they find themselves in, learning to be new people to fit their new roles. You'll be happy to know that Apodain does manage to redeem himself in the eyes of the populace later on, and Breyd learns to stand up for herself a lot better than she did at the beginning. But these character-building moments are interspersed equally with the progress of the war, which is exciting enough for most action-adventure lovers. The death toll is very high, but the descriptions are left somewhat vague for the most part, so you don't get flying viscera or crunching skulls or anything like that. Actually, most of the fighting descriptions are from Breyd's point of view, and because of the goddess magic, she isn't entirely conscious while it all happens. Effective, yes; aware, not so much.
It isn't short, and it took me a while to get through it (which isn't exactly a downside, to my way of thinking), but it was worth the time. If nothing else, watching the priest of the lion god having to adjust his thinking about earth goddesses, and the arrogant princess about the common warrior-woman, and the prince about the meaning of bravery, was all very satisfying.