Song of the Eight Winds

It's 1229, the year of the Christian 'Reconquest' of Mallorca from the Moors, a Muslim people of Afro-Arabic origin who have ruled Spain in cultural splendour for five hundred years. Heading the Christian invasion is King Jaume I, the dashing 21-year-old ruler of the northern Spanish kingdom of Aragon, who sets out for Mallorca with a mighty armada of one hundred and fifty ships carrying some fifteen thousand foot soldiers and fifteen hundred cavalry. The helmsman of the royal galley is Pedrito Blanes, a strapping Mallorcan peasant of the same age as King Jaume. This is his story. Pedrito has spent five years as a slave of Moorish pirates and is now eager to return to his family on the island. Despite their disparate backgrounds, a firm friendship develops between the two young men, a bond fortified by the perils of the sea voyage and destined to survive the disapproval of the youthful king's entourage of powerful nobles and clergymen - as well as Pedrito's patent lack of enthusiasm for the monarch's zealous commitment to warfare in the name of religion. Set against a backdrop of breathtaking Mediterranean scenery, an enthralling saga dictated by the vagaries of fate unfolds. The horror and brutality of battle is countered by the tenderness shown to Christian Pedrito in an unexpected encounter with two Muslim women - one older than him, the other younger - which reveals heart-rending aspects of his past and sows the seeds of a forbidden romantic relationship punishable by death. Yet there are threads of humour woven discreetly into this intense, action-packed yarn - a rare quality that puts Song of the Eight Winds in a niche unique within the genre of historical fiction.