Bøger af Ben Blake

Troy still stands, and the Greek army threatens to revolt. But Odysseus has a plan, dreamed up with the storyteller Thersites. The scheme centres on the south gate of Troy - the Horse Gate. In Greece itself revolt has already torn the nations apart. The kings will return to more war, with armies shrunk by the losses of Troy - if they return at all. For the gods are fickle, and the Greensea and its islands are full of perils even Odysseus has not guessed. PRAISE FOR BEN BLAKE "A beautifully crafted tale, full of action well told by a great storyteller." (Avid Reader)

The war for Sarténe has begun. In the city of Mayence the people prepare defences and wait for the All-Church army to come. Everything depends on Calesh Saissan and his friends, but an assassin has slipped into the city and is waiting for his chance, even before the army approaches. In the mountains, the Lady of the Hidden House teaches her lore to Farajalla, her chosen heir. Because the ancient arts must survive, or nothing Calesh does will matter. But as the All-Church moves to surround Mayence, it seems nothing of Sarténe will escape at all.

A vast Greek fleet has gathered at Aulis, ready for the assault on Troy. But a prophecy says the first man ashore will die, and unease spreads among the soldiers. Across the sea Troy prepares to defend herself. Palisades have been built overlooking the beach, and neighbouring cities have promised help. Better still, Mursili the Hittite is making dozens of iron blades, each one stronger than any weapon in all Greece. Isander of Elis dreamed of winning glory in battle. He is among the assembled Greeks, but what awaits him on the shores of Troy is greater and more terrible than he can have imagined.

The Brethren were the finest warriors of their time, and they never died. When fortune turned against them they were laid into an enchanted sleep in a hidden cave, to wake again when the land was in peril. Then they would go back to war, led by their captain Alar Redhand, his sword Hard Lightning in his hand. But when they wake it is six hundred years later, and the war they fought in has long been lost. If they are to have any place in this new world, where even the name of the land has changed, it will be beside their former enemies, the Haesci. For the land is indeed in peril once more, invaded by the barbaric northern Einhiar, and the Haesci kingdoms are falling one by one. Alar and his dwindling band must fight again, beside the enemies they once despised, if anything of the world they remember is to be saved.

Calesh Saissan is a captain of the Hand of the Lord, a military Order fighting in Tura d'Madai. But he has no faith in the God he seems to serve. The purpose of the Hand is to distract attention, so the All-Church will not notice the heresy growing in its homeland of Sarténe. Now word has reached Calesh that the charade has failed. The heresy has been revealed, and the All-Church will turn its next Crusade west, into Sarténe. So Calesh comes home, back to the land he left eleven years ago to escape the sorrows of his youth. Back to another war, this one for survival. With him come the soldiers of the Hand, ready to defend their homes. With him too comes his mixed-race wife, the half-Madai Farajalla. Waiting are his old friends, three men with whom he made legends once, and also the Lady of the Hidden House behind her veils of mystery. Together they must stand against the All-Church, or see their country burn.

The fractious, bickering Greeks have a High King now. There are fewer wars. Men say the Age of Heroes ended when Theseus leapt into the sea. But far afield there are heroes still, not all of them Greek. Eastern islands have been conquered and settled, towns founded on strange shores in the west. Crete itself has fallen, mighty Minos thrown down. Greek eyes begin to range wider, to powerful Egypt in the south and the rich trade routes of the east, watched over by the Topless Towers of Troy. Greek kings long for that wealth. The Trojan king longs for the return of his sister, abducted years before by a Greek raiding party. Perhaps the Greeks can be forced to bargain, in exchange for one of their own noble women... if Troy can steal one away. And the Fates begin to weave a new, rich thread into their endless tapestry.