Genre: Historical Fiction

Be brave, gladiatrix. . .And be wary. Once you win Caesar’s love, you’ll earn his enemies’ hate. Fallon was warned. Now she is about to pay the price for winning the love of the Roman people as Caesar’s victorious gladiatrix.

In this sequel to The Valiant, Fallon and her warrior sisters find themselves thrust into a vicious conflict with a rival gladiator academy, one that will threaten not only Fallon’s heart—and her love for Roman soldier Cai—but the very heart of the ancient Roman Empire.

When dark treachery and vicious power struggles threaten her hard-won freedom, the only thing that might help the girl known as Victrix save herself and her sisters is a tribe of long-forgotten mythic Amazon warriors. The only trouble is, they might just kill her themselves first. 

Fallon’s story continues in The Defiant, but the setting is given more scope as Fallon and her companions rush to save Fallon’s sister, Sorcha, from being sacrificed by the Amazon warriors. When the gladiatrices are given a chance to choose their fate, many follow Fallon because of her bravery and fierce dedication to returning to Rome to save the gladiatrices who were taken prisoner. During the journey, Fallon must grapple with the fact that she cannot save everyone—some will be taken prisoner, some will change sides, and some will lose their lives.  

The Defiant does an excellent job of recapping the main events from the first book in the series; however, the series is best read in order. The Defiant features many of the same characters as The Valiant and introduces several new characters. Even though Fallon is surrounded by her sister gladiatrices and several Roman soldiers, she is the leader who makes decisions for everyone. Fallon’s inability to trust others leads to a lack of teamwork, which takes away some of the enjoyment of each battle won. In addition, focusing solely on Fallon keeps the other characters stagnant. Readers who love character-driven stories may be disappointed with the lack of character development.  

Like the first book in the series, The Defiant includes adventure, action, and several surprises. However, some of the story drags because Fallon and her companions travel a long distance. Despite this, Fallon’s adventure is both entertaining and exciting. Readers who get squeamish during bloody battles should avoid reading The Valiant Series because each battle ends in bloodshed, and Fallon’s enemies include a group of men who eat people’s hearts. The Defiant is best suited for mature readers who enjoy political intrigue, bloody battles, and the fight against evil.  

Sexual Content  

• Fallon and Cai kiss occasionally. However, only some of them are described. For instance, Cai returns to Rome after being in a battle. When Fallon sees him, “It took every last infinitesimal amount of self-control I could muster not to throw myself into Cai’s arms and devour him with kisses, right there in front of the whole academy. . .” 
• Later, when they are alone, Fallon “lunged at him, reaching up to pull his head down toward me, and silencing him with the kiss I’d been waiting on for months. . . his mouth opened hungrily on mine. His arms wrapped around me and he lifted me off the ground.” 
• In the evening, Fallon and Cai go to the garden. “Cai lowered his face to mine and kissed me on the mouth. I felt myself melting into his embrace as my arms circled around his neck. . .[they] sank slowly to the soft grass. . .”  
• Later that night, they show each other their battle scars and kiss them. Cai kisses her again. “A long, slow, teasing kiss that made my lips tingle and turned my skin to fireflies and feathers.” At this time, Fallon wished she was still a princess who should “be sleeping where—and with whom—she damned well pleased.” 
• While in a Roman bath, Cai and Fallon kiss. Fallon “lost myself to the sensation of his skin sliding against mine as he stopped swimming and, together, we sank beneath the surface of the water, breathing only each other’s air.” 
• Before a battle, one of the gladiatrices “leaned in and kissed [a Roman soldier], full on his open, astonished mouth.” 

Violence  

• One night, the Amazona, a rival gladiatrix academy, attacks Fallon’s academy, the Ludus Achillea. First, they kill the guards and set the barn on fire. As the Ludus Achillea women are being rounded up, a Roman soldier “lunged for one of the guard’s weapons. . . an archer up on the sentry walk spun and aimed, loosing an arrow. . . [the arrow] lodged in the breast of legionnaire Tullis . . . he sank to his knees and toppled forward motionless onto the ground.”  
• During the attack, the Amazona leader, Nyx, uses her whip to attack one of the Ludus Achillea girls, Lydian. “The crack of leather echoed across the yard. Lydia screamed and dropped to the ground a Nyx’s whip caught her on the side of her face, and blood poured onto the sand from between her fingers. . . the whip cracked again as it sliced across Lydian’s shoulder. . . drawing an arch of bright blood. She shrieked again in agony. . .” Later, Lydia is in the infirmary, and “the skin on the right side of her face, where the lash of Nyx’s whip had scored, was split to the bone.” 
• To stop the abuse, Fallon attacks Nyx. Nyx “brandished the heavy butt end of the whip like a club and caught me on the side of the head with it. Stars burst in front of my eyes. . . Nyx slammed the whip across my back like a truncheon. Then again. And again. . . A kick from her hobnailed boot lifted me off the ground.” Nyx stabs Fallon and then puts her in a dark cell. 
• To escape Nyx, Fallon has to kill Ixion (an Amazon warrior) from behind. “Ixion’s heavy dead body sagged away from me. . .Never mind that my hands were shaking as I wiped clean my blade on the dead man’s tunic.” 
• When Fallon and her companions are escaping from Nyx, a guard is killed. “The blade sliced through the rain, spinning end over end, and the man toppled soundlessly over the Ludus wall.”  
• One of Fallon’s friends tells her a story. “When I was a girl, I came across what was left of one of those captives. . . He’d been blood-eagled. Split open and strung up between the branches of a tree as an offering to our god and a warning to our enemies.” 
• Fallon and her companions flee from Rome. While sneaking onto a ship, guards called vigiles see Fallon and her fellow gladiatrix, Meriel. The girls attack the guards. “And two of them went down like sacks of grain the instant they attacked. I didn’t have time to think about how it felt to have to wrench my sword out of human flesh again, twisting as I did to avoid slipping in the hot, red rush of blood. . .”  
• A guard attacks, and Fallon “raised an axe over his head, screaming as he swung the weapon back for a killing blow. He screamed louder when he realized that he no longer had an axe—or an arm—to swing.” Fallon escapes, but Meriel doesn’t. It is unclear what Meriel’s fate is. 
• One of Fallon’s friends questions the goddess Morrigan’s kindness. He says, “Your fearsome war goddess. She who—as I’ve been led to understand—bathes in the blood of her enemies and feasts on their eyes after the battle’s done. She would not be so cruel?” 
• To free Fallon’s sister, Sorcha, some of the gladiatrices from the Ludus Achillea go to the island the Amazons inhabit. When they get there, Thalestris—who had kidnapped Sorcha—was to sacrifice Socha. Thalestris tied Sorcha to a menhir and called out to her god. “Cybele! Black stone mother! Guardian of the boundaries between the living and the dead! Accept this blood sacrifice that we may wash the shame of our sister Orithyia’s disgrace and defeat from our skins and our souls.” 
• Fallon and her group attack the Amazons. “The flaming iron cage balls soared out of the darkness like stones hurled from catapults, slamming into the protective shell made from our wall of shields, and the darkness exploded knot showers of sparks. . . Our blades darted out like serpents’ tongues, sometimes tagging flesh.”  
• An older Amazon woman “swung an oak staff at [Fallon’s] head. . .and I caught the blow at an angle.” Fallon head-butted the woman in the face. “I felt her nose break. Blood gushed and she reeled backward, pain-blind . . .” The fight ends when Fallon repeatedly yells stop. Fallon gives the Amazons a speech, and both sides put down their weapons.  
• As the Ludus Achillea leaves the island, Thalestris throws a fishing spear, killing a man. “His body stiffened and jerked, chest thrust forward, and the glistening red tip of a spear blade appeared as if by some evil magic, sticking out of the center of his tunic. . . When he opened his mouth to say something, all that came out was a gout of bright blood.” 
• While at Cai’s father’s home, the guards try to attack Fallon and her friends. When the guard tries to punch Fallon, she “blocked the blow with my sword. He didn’t have time to scream in pain before I circled my blade through the air and lunged forward, burying the point in his chest.” 
• When all the guards are dead, “the blood pooled beneath our feet, seeping from the mortal wounds of the seven dead vigils.” 
• Cai’s father, Varro, attacks Fallon, who “took the length of a pitchfork shaft in the stomach. I dropped to the ground, wheezing, and my sword fell from my hands. . . Varro turned and threw me through the air. . . It felt as though my head had been torn half off.” 
• To protect Fallon, “without the slightest hesitation, Cai thrust the blade between his father’s ribs. Right to the hilt.” As Varro took his last breaths, Cai said, “I renounce you, and your name, and your blood. I will not perform the rites for you, old man. I will not put coins for the Ferryman on your eyes. You go to Hades with no issue, no legacy, and no hope to ever walk the fields of Elysium beside my mother’s shade.” 
• The Amazon and the Achillea gladiatrices battle. Sorcha fights Nyx. As Thalestris goes to kill Fallon, Sorcha “brought her blade up and around. . . and thrust into the space beneath Thalestris’s arm as she tore my sword out of my grasp. . . Thalestris was dead before she hit the ground.” 
• Nyx joins the fight, wielding a fire chain. Nyx “swung the thing back and attacked again. And again. . . In her enthusiasm to spill my brains, it seemed she’d forgotten that I had a second sword. And she’d left herself wide open. . . I buried it between her ribs.” 
• From the stands, someone shot an arrow at Fallon. “It dented on impact, and I felt like I’d been hit by a catapult stone, but I was alive.” 
• Another arrow was let loose, but “Aeddan leaped in front . . .taking the second arrow that was meant for [Fallon] square in the chest. . . He spun around in a grotesque dance. . . toppled off the wall and hit the ground below.” The Achillea gladiatrices win the battle, but there are many deaths.

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Often, Fallon and other adults drink wine. For example, after a practice battle, a drunk man asks Fallon for a kiss. She “snatched the cup from his hands and drank the wine in one gulp.” She left without kissing him. 
• At night, Fallon and the other gladiatrices sit around the fire with “mugs of beer.” Some of the girls get drunk. 
• When injured, Fallon is given a “potion” to stop the pain. Another gladiatrix is given “poppy draughts” when injured in a battle. 
• Fallon’s sister is rescued and given a sleeping draught. 
• To give Fallon and Cai time alone, Cai’s friend gets the guards drunk. 
• Fallon thinks a “potent soporific” made her have bad dreams. 
• One of the Sons of Dis put hemlock, a sedative, in Fallon’s wine. However, Fallon says, “The senator’s physician sent a cup of wine to my room every night to help me sleep. But I had such terrible dreams the first night; I just kept pouring the stuff out the window.”

Language  

• Profanity is used occasionally. Profanity includes arse, ass, bloody, damn, and hell. 
• There is some name-calling, including bitch, bastard and whore. 
• “Lugh’s teeth” is used as an exclamation several times. 
• “Morrigan’s bloody teeth” and “sweet Juno” are used as exclamations once. 

Supernatural 

• When Fallon is delirious with fever, she’s forced to flee the Ludus Achillea; she prays to her goddess. Afterward, she sees a vision of a warrior she knows. She follows the warrior, who leads her to safety. Fallon believes, “The Morrigan had sent his shade back from the Lands of the Blessed Dead to lead my friends and me.”

Spiritual Content  

• The conflict revolves around “the Sons of Dis, a depraved and cultish secret society dedicated to the sacrificial worship of a god of the Underworld.” Fallon saw a group of men “in feathered masks crowding around [a gladiator’s] split-open carcass, greedily devouring the heart that had beat so strongly within his chest only a handful of moments earlier.”  
• Dis is “the dark incarnation of the Roman god Saturn—ruler of the Underworld, a pitiless deity who could grant his worshippers strength and power but would only be placated with blood.”
• The Egyptians believed that “when we die, Anubis, the god of the dead, carves out our heart and weighs it against Ma’at, the feather of truth.” 
• Fallon often refers to her goddess. Her father promised her hand in marriage to a man Fallon didn’t love. After a time, Fallon wonders, “if my father’s decision hadn’t been a part of the goddess Morrigan’s plan for me all along.” 
• Before the gladiatrices are attacked, Fallon dreams of Morrigan appearing. “Her cloak was made of dagger blades. . .” Morrigan whispers the word “vengeance,” and Fallon wakes to find the stables on fire. Later, Morrigan tells Fallon to “Run! Live! Return to fight another day!” 
• When Fallon is seriously injured, she wonders, “Had the Morrigan forsaken me because I’d pledged my warrior’s gifts in service to Caesar?” 
• When Fallon’s enemy has captured her, he says, “Don’t you see, Fallon. Your goddess has laid out your fate’s path to lead right to the doorstep of my god. Dis and Morrigan are kindred.” 
• When Fallon is in danger, she prays to Morrigan. Later, she believes “the Morrigan had heard my prayers and given me this chance.” When Fallon is finally safe, she offers “a silent prayer of gratitude to the Morrigan.”  
• When Fallon’s sister, Sorcha, is kidnapped, a friend “made sacrifices to the goddess for her safe journey.” 
• Sorcha was kidnapped so she could be sacrificed “to the goddess of the Amazons under the light of the Huntress Moon. How spilling of her blood would make their tribe mighty again.”  
• Fallon’s tribe believes that after a person dies, they go to the Blessed Isles of the afterlife. 
• When a man in Fallon’s group dies, she “whispered a prayer for the Morrigan to guide his soul’s flight.” 
• Cleopatra tells Fallon that she can’t join the fight because “I am the daughter of the gods and, as such, should probably leave such robust bloodshed to you who are trained in those arts.”  
• For protection, Cleopatra gives Fallon a pendant with Sekhmet on it. “One of the goddesses, and much like—if I understand what your sister has told me—your goddess, the Morrigan.” 

Princess. Captive. Gladiator. Always a Warrior. 
 
Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king and the younger sister of the legendary fighter Sorcha. When Fallon was just a child, Sorcha was killed by the armies of Julius Caesar.
 
On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is excited to follow in her sister’s footsteps and earn her place in her father’s war band. She never gets the chance.
 
Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar himself. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s family might be her only hope of survival.
 
Now, Fallon must overcome vicious rivalries, deadly fights in and out of the arena, and perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier and her sworn enemy.  The Valiant recounts Fallon’s gripping journey from fierce Celtic princess to legendary gladiator and darling of the Roman empire.  

The Valiant jumps right into the action and proceeds at a breathtaking pace until the very end. Overnight, Fallon’s dreams are obliterated, and her life falls apart. As a captive, Fallon’s fierce determination to free herself is admirable. While Fallon’s pain is understandable, her strength and bravery never falter. Fallon takes the reader on her adventure, which leads her to several eye-popping surprises and forces her to question her beliefs while retaining her strength of character. 

Told in first person, The Valliant focuses on Fallon, who must learn about Rome’s culture and politics. At one point, Fallon meets both Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. This adds an extra layer of interest. As a strong woman, Cleopatra reinforces one of the book’s themes: “A woman ought to be able to chart her own course in life.” In addition to Caesar and Cleopatra, the book has many characters that play a significant role in the story but are not well developed. Despite being underdeveloped, Fallon’s romantic interest, Cai, has several swoon-worthy scenes that break up the battle scenes. 

The Valiant is an entertaining book that follows a brave protagonist worthy of rooting for. However, the book deals with dark topics, including slavery, murder, and worshiping the Greek god of death. And while the gladiatrix fights bravely, war is not glorified. Cai reminds Fallon, “Honor is nothing but a dangerous lie, Fallon. In battle, there is no honor, not really. Caesar never won because he was honorable. He isn’t. He won because he was clever and tenacious and used whatever means necessary. . .” Mature readers who aren’t squeamish about violence will enjoy following Fallon’s adventure into the Roman empire. For a less bloody adventure, read the Protector of the Small Series by Tamora Pierce and The Royal Ranger Series by John Flanagan. 

Sexual Content  

• Fallon and Mael hope to one day get married. After practicing for battle, Mael kisses her. “His lips on mine silence my apology, muffling words with his sudden, hungry kiss. My eyes went wide. . . then drifted shut, plunging me into a red-lit darkness. . . My pulse surged loudly in my ears, and my fingers tangled in his long hair as I drew him down to me again.” The kiss is described over a page.  
• Fallon’s father betrothed her to Mael’s brother, Aeddan. After the announcement, Aeddan “spun me around and kissed me hard on the lips.” Fallon does not kiss him back. Later that night, he brings wine to Fallon’s house to celebrate. 
• When Aeddan tries to kiss Fallon again, she “jammed my knee into his groin, shoving him away as he gasped in pain and staggered back.” Before Aeddan can try to kiss her again, Mael appears and uses his sword to push Aeddan out of the house. 
• A Roman officer, Cai, meets Fallon, who wanders the gladiator school’s grounds. “He took me again by the shoulders, drawing me toward him. . . Cai’s hands lightly moved up my arms, over my shoulders and down my back to my waist, tracing my body through the thin material. . .” Fallon flees before Cai can kiss her.  
• After Fallon breaks Cai’s ribs, she goes to the infirmary to apologize. “Cai pulled me tightly to his bandaged chest and held me there. . . and he kissed me with a hungry desperation that tore the breath from my lungs. His hands tangled in my hair, and my arms tightened around him. . . he didn’t stop kissing me. Not for a long, dizzying while.” 
• When Fallon goes to have a slave collar removed, Cai goes with her. Afterward, “Cai reached up and ran his fingertips along my skin, and I shivered at this touch. . . his hand shifted to slide into my hair, and he brought his face down to mine and kissed me. The kiss thrilled me all the way to my toes.” 
• After professing his love for Fallon, Cai kisses her. “His mouth was nectar-sweet as he kissed me, and we fell back together into the soft, cool grass beside the stream.” 

Violence  

• Mael and Aeddan fight over Fallon. “Suddenly, Aeddan reared back and head-butted his brother sharply. Mael reeled away in pain, blood running down his face. . .” Aeddan stabs Mael with a blade, and Mael “opened his mouth, and a dark gout of blood bubbled up and spilled down his chin. Aeddan wrenched the dagger out of his brother’s flesh, and Mael collapsed.” Fallon assumes Mael dies.  
• Fallon was lost in the forest at night when “a broad-shouldered man swung his fist like a mallet at my head. I fell, consumed by a dark red tide.” When Fallon wakes, she tries to scream, but the man “pressed a knife blade up under my left ear. The scream building in my throat died instantly.” Fallon is kidnapped and sold to a slave trader. 
• The man who kidnapped Fallon hit her. “A short, sharp jab to my stomach. . . his thick fingers fumbling at the lacing of my tunic. I kicked and swore at him, but I was chained, and he was much stronger.” The man intended to rape her, but the slave master stops him.  
• The Varnini are a tribe of fierce women fighters. Fallon and Varini girl are put into a wagon and chained together. They get into a fight. Fallon describes, “She lashed out at me with one long leg, the leather sole of her sandal slapped painfully against my thigh. . .” The girl hit Fallon’s face, and “pain exploded from my left cheek, and a red mist descended in front of my eyes. . . I howled in fury and swung my clenched fist in a double blow that caught the Varini on the temple and sent her reeling.” The fight is described over three pages. 
• Because of Fallon and the Varini’s fight, the wagon tips over. The slave driver’s “head was bent at an unnatural angle, and his mouth was frozen open in a silent cry of shock. A slick of dark blood painted the sides of his face, and his eyes were empty and staring.” 
• When the Varini was first captured, she attacked the slave trader. She said, “I bit off half his ear and kicked him in the balls so hard he still limps.” 
• Fallon and the Varini girl, Elka, run, but they are still chained together. They try to hide, but a group of men find them. “The man reared back again, and while his attention was focused on Elka, I sprang forward with a low, darting thrust that tagged him solidly on the upper thigh. . . I pulled my sword and blood spilled down the front of his leg.” The fight is described over two pages. 
• Charon, the slave master, finds the girls who are being attacked. “With one swift motion, Charon had grabbed the brigand by the shoulder and yanked him around. Two moves and the man lost first his sword hand. . . and then his head. . . The man’s head toppled from his neck and bounced away into the undergrowth, the whites of his eyes glittering in the moonlight.” 
• Pirates attack the ship that the slaves are in. The slaves are locked below deck. Fallon watched as “the body of a man fell across the grate. His mouth and eyes were frozen open in a horrible death grimace. Wind-dark blood flowed from a gaping wound to his chest. . .”  
• Fallon breaks out of the ship’s hold and enters the fighting. “A legionnaire gutted one of the pirates not three strides in front of me, and the man twisted in a horrid dance as his guts spilled. . . Legionnaires in their uniforms [were] hacking and slashing and killing.” 
• When being sold as a slave, Fallon and Elka are chained together. Two other slaves are given weapons and told they will be freed if they can kill the two women. When one of the men attacks Fallon with a pike, “with a powerful thrust of [Elka’s] long legs, Elka had launched herself toward us, howling with battle madness. The point of her sword blade disappeared up under the man’s helmet chinstrap. . . then the man’s chest bloomed suddenly with a dark crimson that flooded down over his painted skin.” 
• During the attack, Fallon “swung up at a sharp angle and met my attacker’s weapon, screeching up its length in a flash of sparks. . . I brought the sword back around and down in a vicious slash across the man’s extended forearm. Blood spurted, crimson, and sparkling in the sunlight.” The fight is described over three pages. One man dies. 
• While being trained to be a gladiatrix, a group of women attack Fallon. “Another crack of the whip and a line of fire licked across the backs of my legs. I fell to my hands and knees with a grunt. . .” When Fallon falls, “the girls kicked and punched at me in the darkness, and I curled into a ball to try to avoid the worst of it. . .”  
• Enraged at her attackers, Fallon grabs two torches. “I spun circles of flames in the dark air, batting the whip away from me and almost setting the retiarius net aflame. . . One girl screamed in alarm as my torch set her tunic hem smoldering.” The next day, Fallon “hobbled out to the practice yard, where the throbbing, livid bruises on my legs and arms went glaringly unremarked upon.” The attack is described over three pages. 
• After the swearing-in ceremony, two women were eager to use their weapons. One woman accidentally injures her sparring partner. Fallon sees “the crumpled body of a girl lying in a pool of blood, shockingly red against the white-gold sand. . .” The girl, Lion, lost her hand. Someone “was on her knees, tearing linen into strips and wrapping Lion’s arm tightly as she could while crimson spurted in time with the beating of the girl’s heart. . .” While in the infirmary, the doctor, Heron, “and his assistant worked to stanch the flow of blood. . . He returned with a bronze brazier full of angry red coals and a metal bell-shaped tool that had been heated until it glowed.” The woman survives. 
• Cai is angry that Fallon will not allow him to buy her. He spars with her. “He was relentless, he was humorless. . .” Fallon tricks Cai, who looks away. “I wound up with all the strength that I could muster and delivered a slashing blow to his exposed flank. I heard his rib crack like a slap of a hard-shot arrow. Cai dropped to one knee in the sand. . .” Cai’s rib is broken.  
• The end of the book has several gladiator tournaments described in long, bloody detail. Not all of the battles are described here. During one fight, “one gladiator’s trident had gone straight through the guts of his opponent. Two of the tines stuck out obscenely from his back, dripping wet. . .” The wounded gladiator’s “face [was] rigid with pain, and gestured for the mercy blow”. . . his opponent picked up his sword and “thrust the point through the other man’s neck.” 
• During Fallon’s first gladiatrix battle, she is knocked down by the Fury. Fallon is “down on all fours in an instant, sucking sand-gritty air through my teeth. . . In the very last instant before her attack, I slammed the hilts of my twin swords together and thrust them out before me. . .” The swords went into the Fury’s ribs. The Fury’s “body slammed into me, throwing me back down to the ground. . . I thrashed and struggled and heaved her off me.” Fallon watches as “blood bubbled up and spilled out the sides of her mouth, staining my fingers.” The Fury dies. 
• At a party, two gladiators fight. One of the men, Ajax, “looked down to see two blades protruding from his chest, the points red with his own blood.” Later, Fallon sees a group of men huddled around the body. “They had split Ajax’s torso open like the roasting carcass of a wild boar. I glimpsed the white gleam of his rib cage grasping like rigid fingers at the shadows, and I could hear the wet, gluttonous sounds of feasting.” 
• A fellow gladiatrix named Nyx tricks Fallon and Elka into drinking spiked wine, Elka is flogged. Afterward, Fallon finds Nyx in the laundry. Fallon “went straight for trying to drown her in the tub. I used my shoulder to hit her from behind square in the middle of her back, and she fell face-first into the water. . . I grabbed a length of sodden linen and slapped it hard across her torso, knocking her over.”  
• Fallon and Nyx are in a reenactment of one of Julius Caesar’s battles. However, they are on opposite sides. During the battle, Fallon attacks Aeddan. Fallon “rammed the butt of my spear into his side. The breath left his lungs in a whoof as he stumbled sideways, and I followed up with a series of swift, vicious jabs.”  
• Fallon gets into a chariot and demands that Aeddan drive it. “Aeddan steered so that we would pass within arm’s length of Nyx’s chariot on our right. . . Nyx’s whip cracked, and I ducked instinctively . . . The wasp-kiss of the whip left a crimson welt on my upper arm.”  
• After several passes, Fallon tells Elka to send a spear into Nyx’s chariot. “The chariot shot upward, arching through air like it had been unleashed from a legion catapult. . . Nyx screamed, arms and legs flailing frantically as she sailed up and over her horses’ heads.” Nyx is injured but not killed. The final battle is described over ten pages.  

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Every two years, the tribes come together to feast and drink alcohol, and many become drunk. 
• Alcohol, usually wine, is often served with dinner. 
• Fallon confronts her sister, Sorcha, who “strode over to a side table that held a wind jug and goblets. She sloshed a generous measure of dark red wine into one of the goblets and took a long drink.” 
• After drinking the spiked wine, Fallon passes out on the side of the road. A group of girls finds her and takes her to their house. When Fallon awakes, she is at “a house of whores.”

Language  

• Profanity is used rarely. Profanity includes arse, bitch, damn, and bastard. 
• “Oh dear goddess” and “Lugh’s teeth” are used as exclamations once. 
• Another gladiatrix convinces Fallon and Elka to go to a party. As they walk to it, they consume wine. Fallon “took another swallow, and my urge to run faded as the liquid heat from the wine coursed through my limbs.” Later, she discovers the wine was spiked with mandragora, “a powerful intoxicant.”  

Supernatural 

• Fallon’s tribe has both men and women warriors. “The legions thought of the Island of the Mighty were demons, aberrations whose corpses they burned in heaps after battles so that their black souls could never escape to inhabit another body.”  
• When Fallon’s sister, Sorcha, was alive, she spent “time with the chief druid. . .The druiddyn were sages and mystics of our tribe. They dealt with portents and prophecies. . .” 
• After Fallon kills a woman in battle, she is shaken. Her friend, who has killed before, tells her, “His shadow visits me almost nightly in my sleep. We’re so familiar with each other now, he’s almost a friend.” Later, Fallon “said a silent prayer for the Fury and thanked her for giving me the fight that would send me hurtling toward my destiny.”  
• To frighten Fallon, someone nails a raven to her door. Some think it is an omen of “ill luck.”

Spiritual Content  

• Fallon often refers to Morrigan, “goddess of death and battles.” Fallon had a dream that Morrigan visited her and called her daughter.  
• Sorcha explains why she allowed her family to believe she was dead. Afterwards, Fallon “heard the sound of wings beating overhead. I looked up, the sky was clear. Empty. But in my mind, a throaty voice whispered, ‘Daughter’ and ‘Victory.’” Morrigan’s voice reassures Fallon.  
• After being taken captive, Fallon prays to Morrigan, the triple goddess of blood and battles. “Mach. Red Nemain. Badb Catha . . . hear me. Wind, carry my words. Shadows and darkness, see my plight. Let the Morrigan hear my pleas. Give me strength to vanquish my enemies and wreak my vengeance.” 
• After someone vandalizes Fallon’s room, “I whispered a prayer of thanks to Morrigan that I’d had the foresight to take the box of Charon’s armor directly to the quartermaster.” 
• A woman died in a gladiator fight. During her funeral, someone says, “Last night the goddess Nemesis, she of the midnight brow, in her great wisdom called Ismene to the realm of heroes and sent forth Mercury to guide her there. She feasts now in the halls of Dis, she spars with Minerva. . .” 
• When a gladiator is killed in battle, “the gladiator’s body was dragged from the arena by hook-wielding men dressed in outlandish headdresses meant to resemble long-eared desert dogs. . . the men were playing the ritual part of an Egyptian god of the dead called Anubis.”  
• Fallon tells her friend, “Morrigan hates me.” Her friend replies, “Your goddess has brought you this far. Maybe this is her way of telling you she thinks you’re worth the effort.” 
• During a battle, Fallon realizes that “The Morrigan had not forsaken me. She wasn’t against me. The true Morrigan had shown herself to lead me to victory.”