Ruth L Spurgeon: 5 books

Something happened to White Swan when the music played. It was a fire that burned in her veins, made her move with grace and beauty like the swan she was named for. She knew that Small Owl watched her when she danced, that he left careful gifts for her outside her earth lodge, but her heart pulled...

Life in the Imperial court is empty and without adventure when Akemi loses Kintaro, her childhood friend and the boy she is to marry. Banished from the Emperor's palace, Kintaro is raised by the very man who killed his father and took his estates. With prowess on the battlefield, Kintaro still dreams of Akemi, and filling her life with adventure. Will their paths ever cross again?

Left on the slopes of the Parnon, Elpis's only flaw is that she was born a girl. She is raised in Athens in the house of a noble, but she wrestles with the boys and hunts in the olive groves like a true daughter of Sparta. When she finds out she is the daughter of the Spartan king of legend, Leonidas...

The road from Greece to Sardis is a long one, and Elpis finds herself a slave in the exotic court of Xerxes' winter palace. The clouds of war gather above Greece, ever threatening the uncertain peace as the people wait for the season of war to begin once more. Elpis falls victim to new treachery that...

The king of Persia has called for jars of earth and water, but Greece will not submit. The daughter of Leonidas now sits in a golden cage, dreaming of lost freedom. Swept up in the war engulfing her land, enslaved by the man who had her father killed, Elpis can find no escape from the Persian camp....