Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.1]

Prologue

Each afternoon Daniela Collins escapes the frenetic city of San Francisco and crosses the Golden Gate into the countryside of Marin County. There she saddles her horse at a riding club stables and storms out into the pristine and wooded foothills. What is this sensation of freedom of power she feels-only there, on horseback, far off the trails and alone? The demure twenty-four year old rides her mount Baylor capriciously and at full gallop into the foggy mist. The cool wind rushes through her hair, her perspiration trickles shamelessly down her back . . .

Over three-thousand years before on the other side of the world, a young woman rode out across the plains south of the Black Sea. She was courageous and athletic. Her austere training had been-since the age of twelve on horseback, to defend her clan. It was an all-female culture which called itself, Daughter's of the Moon. Today we know these women only through myth as the Amazons.

Yet Penthesilea was not a myth. She was strong, wise, and while in her own early twenties had been groomed as the nomadic society's new queen. What compact with her gender for survival and independence would this young heroine bring to the world? It was a mandate passed down secretly through the ages-and one that would suddenly emerge around the life of Daniela.

The silent winds of time have kept many secrets. Yet this one was about to be told through an astonishing discovery-made out on the solitary cliffs of Big Sur, California. The unprecedented find had slept for over four hundred years, half- buried and overlooking the cobalt blue Pacific.

This ocean is a sublime body of water, and said to display the temperament of a woman. It is capable of immense tranquility-but during a storm, prone to tremendous rage and destruction.

The secret was about to be shared with the world . . .

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Text and e-book copyright © 2015 Califia Montalvo

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