As Fate Decrees
(2008)A novel by Denyse Bridger
2008 Aurora Award for Best Novel (nominee)
The gods of ancient Greece must find
a mortal champion to defend their fate.
“Go and seek the one I have told you about, she is frail and in need of help. Look not of upper blood, for I have seen her down in the dirt. She is held against her will. Find her and you shall find your savior.”
— The Oracle of Delphi
In ancient Greece the young maiden, Amarantha, is captured and sold in the slave market of Athens.
"What fates await?" she wonders. "And what divine design will the Olympian gods have for me?"
As unexpectedly as she had found herself placed in chains, Amarantha finds herself purchased by a mysterious master who refuses to reveal his true identity.
But he is no ordinary man, nor she an ordinary slave.
Under her master's tutelage, Amarantha is trained as a fighter and challenged to prove herself in battle after battle until her skills are perfected and she is granted the right to know his true identity.
He is Ares, god of war and the son of Zeus. And she is to become Champion to the gods of Olympus; bound forever to serve and vanquish all foes until the gods themselves grant her peace.
But even gods are not immune to the fickle twists of fate, and Amarantha is soon ripped from her quiet resting place and cast through time itself to do battle with a modern day reincarnation of an old foe - a madman bent on rewriting history to suit his own twisted desire.
She must act quickly to win this battle, for the fate of all Olympian gods hangs in a delicate balance between immortality and the realization that even the gods themselves may be returned to the dust from which they arose.
Genre: Fantasy
a mortal champion to defend their fate.
“Go and seek the one I have told you about, she is frail and in need of help. Look not of upper blood, for I have seen her down in the dirt. She is held against her will. Find her and you shall find your savior.”
— The Oracle of Delphi
In ancient Greece the young maiden, Amarantha, is captured and sold in the slave market of Athens.
"What fates await?" she wonders. "And what divine design will the Olympian gods have for me?"
As unexpectedly as she had found herself placed in chains, Amarantha finds herself purchased by a mysterious master who refuses to reveal his true identity.
But he is no ordinary man, nor she an ordinary slave.
Under her master's tutelage, Amarantha is trained as a fighter and challenged to prove herself in battle after battle until her skills are perfected and she is granted the right to know his true identity.
He is Ares, god of war and the son of Zeus. And she is to become Champion to the gods of Olympus; bound forever to serve and vanquish all foes until the gods themselves grant her peace.
But even gods are not immune to the fickle twists of fate, and Amarantha is soon ripped from her quiet resting place and cast through time itself to do battle with a modern day reincarnation of an old foe - a madman bent on rewriting history to suit his own twisted desire.
She must act quickly to win this battle, for the fate of all Olympian gods hangs in a delicate balance between immortality and the realization that even the gods themselves may be returned to the dust from which they arose.
Genre: Fantasy
Used availability for Denyse Bridger's As Fate Decrees