Herad of Ulien has been challenged to engage in ritual combat known as Arena for the right to keep his son. Recovering from wounds he received in an attack on his transport ship, he knows he will be defeated. Ulinar law doesn't allow provisions for illness or injury. It is fight or concede defeat, and that is an option Herad will not consider. But there is an alternative. He may name a champion to fight for him, and he chooses a most unlikely candidate--his son's human nanny... Savarin Jones is a sudakhan, a genetically enhanced human bred and trained to act as a front-line protector for exploration teams surveying recently discovered planets. Once respected members of the human race, they are now hunted and executed on sight. With a price on her head and the shame of a massacre in her past, she has gone into hiding. For eight years she has lived among the Ulinar under a false identity, working as caregiver for the son of Ulien's senior ambassador, Herad. It is a peaceful, if secretive life, a far cry from the one she left behind as a sudakhan. But that tranquility is shattered when Herad is faced with the prospect of losing his son. Suddenly, Savarin must reveal her notorious heritage and risk condemnation from the man she loves in order to save the child she adores...