Set around the First Crusade, this fast-paced historical fantasy novella follows the life of a satyr born on the Island of Rhodes.
Half man, half goat, the baby is taken to an exotic animal zoo and put in a dungeon where he shares a cell with an old man who raises him to love music.
Eventually escaping to a cave overlooking the NeLlc Valley. Zatan lives alone playing his shrynx. Gifted with the ability to seduce women with his beautiful music, he passes peaceful days, ’til suddenly everything changes.
New Release
The Zatan of NeLlc
I’ve always found the Crusades fascinating. Why would thousands of Europeans leave the security of their homes to fight in a Holy War? And for what reason? To have their sins expunged and be admitted to heaven? Did they swallow that? Or was it for riches and glory? Was life so overbearing that they needed an escape? And what about the other side? The Muslims who found their cities besieged and the omnipotent rulers who suddenly witnessed crazed armored soldiers screaming at the gates of their castles, “Deu Lo Vault! (God Wills It!)” I wanted to write about both sides with equal prejudice and disdain.
Now for me to recreate a story about the Holy War, I needed to spice it up a bit, so I scavenged through my brain where this creature has long lived. I know this beast. He is not mythological; he is real! I was there for his birth. I was there as he grew up in the dungeons of Rhodes. I was there when he became passionate about music and found his first love. This creature resembling man and goat is alive with a soul and he needed a home and I believed he would fit perfectly amidst the hysteria of the First Crusade in the land called Anatolia.
The Zatan of NeLlc
(Excerpt)
The little girl grew up in solemn silence. Her friends were the wild sheep and goats. She ate moss, berries, roots, mushrooms and leaves, never tasting meat again. Then at the age of eighteen, bursting with womanhood, desperate and alone, she wanders down to the Village of Rhodes.
Like a wraith, the young woman comes into the harbor, half-stumbling, half-hobbling, barefoot with tattered dress that hangs on her thighs. Her hair is wild and unkempt. Her face is an agony of pain, but she says not a word. Her water has broken many hours ago.
She drifts about the tradespeople: the woodsman, the spice merchant, the cloth dealer. All go about their business but there is whispering: Who is this girl? Has anyone seen her before? In the center of commerce, in front of the harbor where the great statue of Colossus once lay in pieces on the bottom of the sea, the girl collapses. A fisherman walks over, sees she is in a family way, picks her up and carries the young woman to a stone hovel where the midwife resides. He places the unconscious female on a squalid bed.
The midwife examines the dirty girl; the protruding stomach heaves up and down. “Who shall pay for this?” she asks.
“I will bring you fish, do what you can.” The midwife nods and feels the stomach, sees her water has broken. Such a huge baby will be difficult. She waits for payment. The fisherman returns with two big fish and only then does the midwife set to work.
“Push now!” she says to the girl, touching the opening: it is way too narrow.
By mid-afternoon nothing has happened, by evening, nothing. The girl is feverish. By the next day, still nothing. The midwife tries everything. She slits her with a knife. Implores her, “Push with all your might!” By the next morning, the girl is dead, but the baby is alive, so the midwife slices open the womb and delivers the infant.
“What is this!” It is beyond anything the midwife has ever seen. If it had two heads it would not have surprised her more. She shudders, ready to fling the thing in the fire, when a new idea comes upon her. She would not tell anyone and bring this newborn to the Governor. He alone might think this monstrosity something wonderful. It was known he collected exotic animals. Wasn’t this the most exotic baby ever born?
The midwife stands before Andreas Parsovo with a swathed bundle in her arms. The Governor of Rhodes examines the baby with wonder.
“Does anyone know of this?”
“Your Excellency, I showed no one but you.”
“Good,” says Andreas. He opens his purse and hands her two gold coins. “You must now swear secrecy to be taken to the grave. If any word of this gets around, I will have your tongue yanked out by the roots. Is that clear?”
“I will tell no one.”
“Send me a wet nurse, someone discreet who can be trusted. Tell her nothing.”
What Readers Are Saying
Great Read.
Mike Sendler
Very much enjoyed Zatan’s disposition.
Charmaine Tobey
A rollercoaster of emotion from start to finish.
Delmar Byers
The themes of loneliness and heartbreak had me feeling like the book was written about me.