The Palace

A deserted island in the Mediterranean, A.D 371.

One man, three women, four religions, shipwrecked.

How can you find your way home, when you don’t even know where you are?

How can you find your way home, when you’re deep in a war for sanity?

Who will dominate, who will submit, who will crack?

When volumes 2 and later are published, it will be possible to read them in any order. Indeed, one will receive a different experience each time you choose a different starting point and order of reading, though I recommend starting at Volume 1 for the first read.

Categories: adventure, desert island, shipwrecked, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, history, alternative history, stranded, religion, conflict, utopia, myth, paranormal, metaphysical reincarnation, amnesia, menage, erotic, demon, god, paradise

Excerpt:

A heavy, fetid smell oozed from the cave entrance, the smell of dog faeces, rotting flesh and something, something old, far older, like dust of centuries carrying the faintest whisper of something sweet and mysterious.
True to my lover’s instructions, I had to be very careful to please all the women during the day, often being told to brush a tent floor clean or pick up some litter. Electra was reluctant to tell me to do any task, though Jocasta’s disapproving glare soon changed her mind. But now I had to focus on the task at hand.
My steps each came only many pounding heartbeats apart.
“I don’t know why I’m scared!” I said out loud. “The dog is dead. And there surely aren’t bears on the island!”
But I was only talking to break the heavy silence.
I was far enough inside the cave now for my eyes to adjust. I could see the back of the cave, whose roof and walls converged into a narrow passage, its rock walls unevenly grooved, as if cut by some ancient, half-blind giant.
I shuffled forward in a low crouch, curiosity now beginning to overcome my fear. Piled to a height of perhaps half a cubit across the floor of the cave lay many bones, all jumbled together, so that I could not discern what animals they belonged to, but none were bigger than a large rat, except in one alcove. The unmistakable carcass of a dog rotted in serene silence, its brown, leathery skin the only covering now for old bones.
“It must have been the pup, parent or sibling of the old dog.” I murmured, surprised by the echo of my voice. “Otherwise, the old dog would have eaten it. Strange.”
More than ever, I respected the old dog.
The passage of many paws had left a dusty pathway through the bones, but where a bulge in the roof formed a kind of lintel over the passageway at the back, the bones were piled up, indicating that the pack of dogs never entered there.
Not knowing why I hadn’t lit the brand before entering, I deemed it now a good time to do so.
I found myself tracing contours along the yellowish roof and walls with my gaze, searching for any symbols or drawings, but the rock remained obstinately bland.
“Where is that symbol? It must be here?”
My voice sounded close, muffled and stifled.
The passage roof descended as I progressed, until I had to crawl. I debated whether I should go on.
“But I have come too far to go back!”
My brand had burned down almost to my hand when the roof vanished ahead of me. I emerged into a domed chamber, roughly round and perhaps ten cubits in diameter.
As I stood up, a flash of white light burst in my head. I couldn’t tell if I had seen it or only ‘experienced’ it somehow. I recalled tales of visions from some of the older Druidi, which included descriptions of ‘bursting white light in the mind,’ so I wondered if this was what I saw. But it disorientated me, making me lose balance and fall against the wall of the chamber.
Another burst came, then another. I was almost blinded now, and I began to feel faint.
“I’m going to pass out!” I heard myself think.
I slapped my fingers over my eyes and crushed in my temples with my palms, trying to blot out the white light, but still the bursts exploded in my head. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I had dropped the brand, but this didn’t matter anymore.
Something dark, like the shadow of a man, was coming toward me from somewhere ahead, growing larger, and then I felt three more approaching ‘souls’ – I cannot think how else to describe them – approached from my sides and behind. I felt filled with such a horror that I am sure my blood and heart froze. I felt as if I were being sucked into myself and out of this world.
I managed to force my eyes open one last time and discerned that familiar symbol; three triangles forming four, with the central space being scooped out of rock to suggest a blank or ‘black’ variation. It flickered, yellowish, so I guessed the brand still burned on the floor. But when I tried to check, my head would not move.
The bursts of white light had come quicker and quicker, only to suddenly be replaced by an inky blackness. But I could see clearly, though shapes seemed somehow insubstantial. I stood in a vast, pyramidal chamber, with at least three passages leading away on each of the four sides. Down one of the only two passages, along which I could see, bounded a giant dog.
Now, I could move my head again, so I swung it too look down the opposite passage. Along this advanced a many-tentacled beast, which I am hard put to describe. Its head resembled somewhat that of a lion I had watched in a Roman arena, but it sported black and white stripes, and its tongue extended ahead of it so fast that it had wrapped around my neck and whipped off my head before I could even scream.