The Law of Take

Take was the law of orphans like her, and take she had: power, money, safety. Born with none of these, she would build herself into a fortress that could not be felled, her armor impenetrable, her safety secure.

This was a fun novelette about a scheming empress caught out, full of politics and action. I'm always really impressed at really short fiction that can still manage to include a lot of details about the world and the characters.