Book Synopsis
Zhas began life as Chikitum, a boy living in a remote tribe deep within the rainforest. But after half of his family is slaughtered, he is taken captive by slave traders and transported to Bhajar, the capital of the Hahnar Empire. It is there he’s sold to the Yhana School for Zhaljas and given the name Zhas. Here he learns what it means to be a zhalja for a man of wealth— to be his steward, entertainer, host, and most vocal advocate in business and politics. At the age of fifteen, Zhas must be “sponsored” by a man of high society, and the higher the better. Zhas's place in the glamorous world of Bhajar's most important people is cemented when he is sponsored by a man of wealth and influence named Tariq Hassal. However, the easy and charming life of a zhalja is not nearly so simple as Zhas originally imagined, and soon he’s struggling to reconcile what he has been taught with the grim—and often dangerous—reality.