Mostrando resultados por Editor "Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd." en Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía

The protagonist of this tale is Diomedes, the last of the great ancient Greek Homeric heroes, who seeks to return to his beloved homeland after years of war against Troy. But destiny has other plans for him. Betrayed by his wife, who plots to murder him, and persecuted by hostile gods, he has no choice but to turn his sails west, towards Hesperia, the mysterious mist-shrouded land that will one day be called Italy.

In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a traumatic event. He tries - and fails - to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?

Takeo has pledged his life to the secret Tribe. His supernatural skills of invisibility and acute hearing make him their most deadly assassin. But he must deny the spiritual vows of his upbringing, his birthright of Otori wealth, land, and power, and his love for Kaede. If he does not serve the Tribe, they will kill him. In growing from boy to man, Takeo chooses a path of danger and vengeance, and learns of the prophecy that shapes his destiny.

An ambitious warrior leaves his nephew for dead and seizes his lands. A stubborn father forces his younger son to give up his wife to his older brother. A woman of the Old People seeks five fathers for her five children, the Spider Tribe, born from cocoons. A powerful priest trains a young disciple, Shikanoko, who has been made a sorcerer against his will. An intricate tapestry has been woven for two rival clans to enter a savage battle over who will be crowned emperor of the Eight Islands.

Otori Takeo and the beautiful Kaede are now married. But the inescapable forces of destiny that have bound their lives from birth make their happiness an impossible dream. Takeo, still only 17, must raise an army to reclaim his Otori lands, and fulfil the prophecy of the blind sage: "Peace comes at the price of bloodshed. Four battles to win and one to lose". And he can never be free from the invisible assassins of the secret Tribe who have vowed to kill him.