![]() The author, Janet Morris, writes with painterly images that stir the heart, and bring to mind the epic poetry of the Odyssey. “The fury he’d once thought was lent him by a god raged inside him. ![]() ‘It’s your altar they took down.’ But the god was silent.” In the final analysis, the emotions given us by the gods are not external to us. When the altar of the god of war is destroyed, “‘Well, Vashanka?’ he tested. There are conversations with gods, and pleas that end up neglected. ![]() ![]() This is what this story, with Tempus in the lead, is about: “He has ridden at a devil’s pace out of the sanctuary, home to the Stepsons’ barracks, which once had been a slaver’s estate and thus had rooms enough for Tempus to allow his hard-won mercenaries the luxury of piracy.”Īs the immortal commander of the Sacred Band cavalry, Tempus is at once blessed and cursed with his fate: “He lived interminably, though he could not sleep at all… And wounds he took healed quickly - instantly if the god loved him that day, more slowly if they had been quarreling.” Here is a delightfully pagan, mythological world, where gods have caprices just like us, and strife abounds in their realm, which is reflected in ours. ![]() The title “Beyond Sanctuary” suggests to me a journey of exploration, setting out of known place, where it is safe to remain ensconced, to risk life and limb in a fight, a brutal war between forces of good and of evil. ![]()
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