In this epic story filled with passion, courage, and adventure, the author of the internationally bestselling Alexander trilogy tells the tale of two warriors united by blood and torn apart by law.

This is the saga of a Spartan family, unraveled by a harsh custom of their people that causes them to abandon one of their own. The elder son, Brithos, strong and healthy, will live comfortably; but Talos, weak and feeble, must be sacrificed to the wolves of Mount Taygetus. Unbeknownst to his grieving parents, however, the child is miraculously found and saved by a Helot -- the once-proud people who now live in servitude to Sparta.

While his brother is raised in the mighty warrior caste, Talos, who is now a slave, is schooled in the history of the Helot people by his adoptive father. It is then that he learns of the legend of Aristodemus, the last King of the Helots, whose armor, it is prophesied, will be worn again by the liberator of his vanquished race. When the brothers meet for the first time since their separation, it is over crossed swords as Talos defends the woman he loves from the brutality of Brithos. But fate has a greater destiny in store for them -- and as war looms on the horizon, their lives become entwined in ways neither could have imagined. They live out their story in a world dominated by the clash between the Persian empire and the city-states of Greece until the voice of their blood and of human solidarity unites them in a thrilling, singular enterprise.