Exile — M.Gabrielle Legault

The Peloponnesian War is over and there is peace, even between the Illyrian Clans, until one stormy night when a traitor's ring allows assassins into a gated fortress. In the darkest hours of that night, Juljana witnesses the massacre of the Clan Ardian. Widowed, pregnant, and disguised among the servants, she escapes with her cousin's young son.Growing up in exile, Stefan must play the part of a servant in Juljana's new household, fully aware of the truth, that he is Illyrian, and the heir to Ardianian throne. Juljana's Macedonian husband, Gaius Camillus, knows nothing of his wife's true identity, only that the hastily arranged marriage has given him Maia, a daughter to replace another child he lost.After the assassination of King Archelaus, Stefan joins the struggle to protect the leaderless Ardianian people while Maia secretly defies her father and answers her calling for practicing the healing arts. Gaius, determined to shield his daughter from the political chaos erupting in Macedonia, sends Maia away, to a place, where the only way back home is through a path of revelation about Stefan and her mother, leaving her to face the most bitter choice of her life.