Fotheringale

In a land where women are banned from the streets so that men may swordfight at will, a young rich boy loses his dissolute father in such a fight and is raised by his mother on a country estate with a group of orphan girls. When he is seven years of age he is taken to the city to learn the family business under the tutelage of the wise property manager. Eventually, he learns of the abuse of young women that has taken hold in the city due to the atmosphere of oppression that exists there, and hits upon the idea of opening an academy for working class youth of the city, to train them and equip them in preparation for challenging the power brokers who maintain the status quo. Into the mix he adds a number of girls rejected as workers on the farms of the Ruling Council, thus saving them from being sold to slavers from another land.

Over time, he builds the young men and women into a formidable force and begins to take action to stop the abuse that is taking place. Ultimately, it is his own hard-won skill with a sword and the wise stewardship of the family business by the property manager that position him for taking power in Fotheringale, just in time to lead the force of young fighters he has created to oppose an army of invading barbarians.

This is a story of a young man who develops a strong sense of right and virtue and uses his considerable wealth to bring about change is a country whose value system became twisted after thirty years of war.