Una llama entre cenizas / An Ember in the Ashes

Under the Martial Empire, a regime inspired by ancient Rome and built on conquest, slavery and fear, defiance is punished with death. Laia is a Scholar, one of the empire's oppressed, who lives quietly with her grandparents and older brother in the impoverished backstreets, until her brother is arrested for treason. To win his freedom, Laia agrees to infiltrate Blackcliff, the empire's most feared military academy, and spy for the rebellion from within.

At Blackcliff, Laia meets Elias, the academy's most talented soldier and secretly its most unwilling. Raised to become one of the Martials' elite Masks, Elias longs only to escape the violence he has been trained to inflict. As Laia gathers intelligence and Elias edges toward desertion, their paths collide, and the choices each of them makes will put both their lives, and the fate of the empire, on the line.

Sabaa Tahir's debut novel blends political intrigue, brutal action and a forbidden connection across a stark divide of slave and soldier. It became a New York Times bestseller and launched a four-book quartet continued in A Torch Against the Night, A Reaper at the Gates, and A Sky Beyond the Storm.