He was the cunning trickster king, always playing his opponents’ weaknesses against them, lying as easily as other men breathed. He trusted no one, or so the other warriors of Achaia believed. Then he met the one woman who could match him in cleverness and vowed he would have her, no matter what it took. She was the overlooked daughter and cousin, dark and small when her cousins, Helen and Kleitamaistra, were tall and golden. She was a princess, but knew she would be sacrificed in marriage to buy peace for her uncle’s kingdom. She was a visionary, glimpsing the future and events half a world away in her dreams.
Odysseus went to Sparta to win Helen as his bride, but when he saw Penelope, he knew she was the queen who could protect his precious Ithaka through the turmoil of the future. Their love grew through pain and tears, and held strong for twenty years while vengeful gods kept him from their home. Their love triumphed against enemies who would have stolen kingdom and queen, and became the greatest love story ever told...
Note to reader: This story was previously published only in electronic format under the title The Dark One (LTD Books, ISBN 1-55316-083-5). This new Amber Quill Press version, however, has been reedited and retitled for the electronic format and the first-time paperback release.
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Excerpt:
In silence, the ship left anchor and headed out into deeper waters again. The flames of the funeral pyre grew smaller in the distance as Penelope watched. She shivered, wondering if the man who touched her was on the pyre.
“What are you thinking?” Odysseus asked, his voice a rough whisper, softened with weariness.
“How many died?” For a moment, she couldn’t face him.
“Seven. Their leader among them. Dolios found him before I did,” he added, one corner of his mouth rising for a second. “The ones who lived know who they were fighting. Maybe now they will not so easily attack travelers.”
“They know…you told them, and released them?” Penelope shook her head, trying to understand. “What if they call their kinsmen together for vengeance?”
“Who would justify them? Who would help them?” He sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned hard into the rudder. “Penelope, they took their lives into their hands in a wager, and lost.”
“I will never understand battle, or what drives a man to cut the life from another.”
“Sweet Penelope, I hope you never do.”
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