Books

FORBIDDEN SHORE

An island lost in the mists of time. Two powerful, unscrupulous enemy kingdoms. A princess who becomes a hostage, a slave who risks everything to save her—and a cataclysm that threatens to engulf them all…

The kingdom of Atlantis dominates the world. Shy and idealistic Princess Suli, daughter of the King and Queen of Atlantis, is a disappointment to her parents, who plan to marry her off to their enemy, the brutal King Koumaris of Laran, and make her a pawn in the upcoming war of conquest. Sibar, a proud, strong young man, recently taken captive from his fishing village, has been forced to become a palace slave. When he is beaten almost to death by his master, Suli furtively gives him a drawing of a secret way out of the palace. But as Sibar plans his escape, he and Suli are drawn ever more strongly to each other and into a monumental conflict that will threaten two kingdoms as well as both the lovers’ lives.

 

WARRIOR’S PRIZE

A long time ago, two powerful men quarreled over a woman, with tragic results that became legend. In the story of the Trojan War, their names and deeds are remembered forever. But the woman, Briseis, the pawn in the conflict between Achilles and his overlord, King Agamemnon, has been forgotten.

Beloved of the great warrior Achilles, she is a slave whom he claims as his special prize when he sacks her city and kills her husband. Then Achilles quarrels with Agamemnon, who steals her to show his supremacy, setting off a chain of events which results in great suffering and uncounted deaths. But what of Briseis? We know nothing of her fate after the death of Achilles.

In Warrior’s Prize, she tells the story of her first marriage, her tragic love for Achilles, and her hope for life after the destruction of Troy.

Photo by Bruce Precourt. Printed with permission.

SHADOW OF ATHENA

Marpessa, a young girl in archaic Greece is about to become the latest victim of an ancient curse from the goddess Athena. To atone for a sacrilege committed generations earlier by Ajax of Lokris during the fall of Troy, the goddess has decreed that, every year for a thousand years, the citizens of Lokris in Greece must send two maidens as menial slaves to her temple in Troy. Once their servitude is finished, these girls must remain virgins for the rest of their lives.

Marpessa’s father tries to marry her off to the powerful, cruel oligarch Klonios, but before he can do so, her name is drawn to become one of the temple maidens. Furious at being cheated of his young bride, Klonios vows revenge. Escorted by her father’s slave Arion, who yearns for freedom, Marpessa and another maiden travel across the Aegean to Troy. Arion is under orders to return to Lokris after delivering the maidens to the temple. Instead he escapes and ekes out a living in the countryside of Troy. When he learns of a brutal barbarian raid on the citadel, in which the other girl is killed and Marpessa left for dead, Arion rescues her and nurses her back to health. Struggling to survive as fugitives, the two yield to a forbidden love. Together they embark on a perilous journey home, on the way falling captive to menacing Phoenician traders and barely escaping with their lives. When they reach Lokris at last, Arion is recognized and taken prisoner. Marpessa will risk everything, even the wrath of the gods, to save her beloved and join her life with his. But the vindictive Klonios has laid a terrible trap for them—involving a human sacrifice to Athena.