The Fire of Ares

Lysander is a Helot - a slave in ancient Sparta. He struggles on a daily basis to survive and to protect his desperately ill mother, and dreams of a day when the Helots might rebel. When a chance meeting reveals his noble heritage, he is allowed to begin training as a Spartan warrior. But the vestiges of his life as a slave are hard to shake off and he struggles to survive the brutal and nepotistic world of the Spartans-in-training. Worse still, his precious amulet, the Fire of Ares, which he has sworn he will guard with his life, is stolen. With it goes some of his formidable strength. When Lysander picks up the trail of the jewel, it leads him to dark secrets about the few people he felt he could trust, and forces him to make a choice between his Helot friends and his Spartan instincts.