Maximus lay prone at the feet of the goddess Minerva, ready at any minute to be struck down by the hand of Jupiter reaching down from the Heavens to punish him. But nothing happened. After what seemed an age, he raised himself onto his elbows and looked up at Minerva who was lying watching him, twiddling a golden curl in her fingers.

"Have you quite finished being so over dramatic? I didn't expect you to be such a drama queen!" Minerva observed.

"But I have deflowered a virgin goddess! It is against the will of the gods!" Maximus exclaimed.

"Nonsense! My father will be over the moon when he hears of this! He will be as happy as a dog with two sets of genitalia. My mother will be even happier. Max, they are getting on a bit. They want grandchildren. None of my family rates virginity. You know what they're like!"

Maximus sat up and stared at Min. "Grandchildren? You mean you think that I might have...?"

Minerva giggled. "Not yet, I think.  But we haven't finished yet, have we?"

He frowned. "Madam, I cannot presume to repeat my earlier inexplicable lapse of conduct. If you will return me to the mountain I will take my leave before I offend your August Majesty any further..."

"Fie, fie, Maximus. Do you think I will let you away so easily? Make no mistake you are here until I wish otherwise- and for the moment my will is that you should remain. So settle back and prepare for a holiday in the sun. And gird your loins for the task ahead."

Minerva spoke softly but her command was obvious. She was a goddess and he was in her power. Nothing would free him from her unless she willed it so. He shrugged. Ah, well! No choice then but to take the punishment. To be ravished endlessly by the goddess of wisdom until she was finished with him. There were worse ways to spend a winter.

Pulling himself to his feet and striking a more familiar pose, shoulders square, chest out, legs planted firmly apart- he preferred that position; it gave much more ease to his genitalia. Legs together was always a painful position for him, too much was squeezed and chafed. He placed his hands behind his back and stood at attention waiting for his mistress to command him.

"I am yours to command, my goddess!" he said with a deep and manly courtesy.

Minerva rose from her couch. "Then let battle commence. Let us away to unleash some Hell!"

She put out her hand and he took it in his own. Hand in hand they walked along the sea balcony, enjoying the view, the hot sun kissing their upturned faces. On reaching a staircase, they stepped down. It appeared to lead down to the beach below, a hidden private cove, perfect for secret bathing. Maximus noted the number of steps that must be taken to reach the bottom and, gentleman as he was, swung Minerva in his arms and carried her down. She was enchanted by his action. She was enamoured of his manly strength. She was aroused by the proximity to his strong body. He smelt of the bathhouse, rich and spicy fragranced with a touch of wine-laced breath. She sensed his powerful male aroma lurking beneath the surface. Closing her eyes she sank back against his shoulder and allowed herself to be the weak and fragile creature that he imagined her to be.

Once down on the gold sand beach, Maximus returned his lady to her feet. She reached up to wipe away the beads of sweat that trickled down his brow.

"Dies calida sed aqua frigida est. Veni. Natamus!"  (It is a hot day but the water is cool.  Come on, let's swim!)  Minerva whispered seductively.

They stripped each other with eager hands. Maximus peeled off her diaphanous robe and ripped the tiny covering from her loins. Minerva eased the white tunic over his head. His renewed interest in her body was already physically evident. Minerva brushed his manhood lightly with her hands, watched his face soften and his eyes close at the sensation.

Pulling him down to lie upon the sand, Minerva pushed him onto his back. He lay there, eyes fixed on her, willing her to take action. His breathing was unsteady but his gaze was not.

"Do it. You know you want to," Maximus ordered. Minerva had never been commanded before. She was the one who gave out commands. But his deep gravelly voice with its authority and control thrilled her. She had never felt like this before. Lowering her head, she sniffed his cock. It smelt of the spicy oil of his bath. She tasted it. It tasted of the salty clear fluid that trickled from its head. She sucked on it and it felt like a large, hot, silken sweet meat, more succulent than any of the food that Maximus had so recently fed her. She raised her head and observed him. He was already losing his control. His eyes were rolling back in his head. His tongue was tipping from his mouth.

"Continue!" he commanded. Minerva clicked her fingers and a jug of wine appeared in a crystal jug, chilled with snow.

"You are too hot." Minerva poured the wine into her mouth and then lowered her head again. She heard Maximus' sharp intake of breath. Then she slowly trickled the ice-cold wine onto the purple head of his cock. He gasped and bucked his hips at the sudden shock. Minerva repeated the action, watching the golden wine pour down his magnificent shaft and then bent her head to lap it up. She caught every drop, burrowing into his thick hair and licking the stream that flooded down his large heavy testicles onto the sand beneath.

Maximus groaned and she repeated her wine soaked ministrations. He was astonished by her natural sexuality; it moved him as no other woman had ever done. Writhing beneath her mouth on the warm sand, he lay as helpless as a new-born babe while she tended to his needs. But he wanted more. Even in his sex -crazed brain he knew that he did not want to shed his seed here. It must be within her womb. The goddess must be showered with his gift.

As gently as he could, he raised her from him, hearing the pop when her mouth broke its powerful suction and wincing with the pain of it. Pulling her into his arms, he laid her by his side and kissed her, tasting the wine on her divine breath. They rolled and rolled, covering their bodies in sand; first he on top, then she, kissing and sighing, touching and feeling, legs wrapped around and bodies sinuously curving to rub their eager sex against each other.

Then rising above her, his form in shadow and blocking out the sun, he rested Minerva back and gently took her feet, pushing her legs apart and bending them to expose her completely to his gaze. Slipping down, he placed his head before her naked sex and blew gently on her. She shivered with anticipation. A slight click of her fingers and the wine appeared by their side. Maximus picked up the jug and bathed her heavenly portals in the sweet golden liquid lapping her like an eager puppy. His tongue was long and thick; it could be soft and featherlike or rasping and insistent. Over and over he drenched her in the sticky wine and buried his face deep within her to glory in the twin tastes of excellent vintage and divine love juice.

If Minerva had thought she had known pleasure in their first encounter, then she learnt that it had only been an entrée to the main course. His tongue and fingers drove her mad with desire. She felt she could not stand the sensation, that it would surely destroy them both. It was as if she would simply immolate in a burst of flames, desire made manifest, heat reaching temperatures beyond imagination. That pain! That burning knot of nerves! The desperate, hopeless attempt to escape his torture and the terrible fear that he might stop and leave her in this place somewhere between Elysium and Hades!

Minerva's head turned from side to side, her fingers raked his hair and her nails ripped his shoulders, but he would not free her. She threw back her head and cried out, she screamed, she moaned, she begged, she promised, she threatened - and then she came. Calling on his name and that of her immortal father, she let out a high-pitched wail and collapsed into his hands, spent and exhausted. Birds fluttered around, disturbed from their green perches on the nearby cliffs, animals took flight and bounded away at the sound of this unearthly sound, but Minerva merely lay weeping in her lover's arms, beginning at last to understand why mankind risked so much to find this moment.

Maximus held her as she subsided. He had always prided himself on his oral skills but Minerva's reaction even took him by surprise. For the first time ever he wondered what it felt like to be a woman. Maybe Ovid was right. Perhaps they might have the best end of the erotic deal after all.

He returned to her side and watched her open her eyes and smile passively up at him. She no longer wished to be the goddess; in his arms she had become a willing woman. "Maximus! intra homines deus es!"  (You are a god amongst men!)

He smiled and shook his head, "No. Just a man who loves you, mistress!"

They lay in each other's arms, stroking and touching, murmuring and sighing under the bright hot sun. They reached for each other and then realised that they were covered in sand, especially where the wine had trickled. Maximus laughed. "We need to wash this off. The sand is very abrasive!" and he pulled her to her feet. She watched him jog down to the sea and plunge in, diving down and disappearing beneath the waves to surface a long distance from shore and then lazily swim back again. His strokes were strong and sure; he slipped through the water like a great golden fish.

Reaching the shallows, he stood and attended to his cleansing, sluicing water round his member which had been buried in the sand whilst he had pleasured her and was, no doubt, somewhat chafed. Minerva enjoyed the sensation of watching him touch himself and wondered whether he would be aroused should he watch her do the same. As she contemplated this, Minerva suddenly saw Maximus look out to sea; he appeared to notice something there. The goddess was unsure what had attracted his attention.

Maximus began to wade out further, clearly curious now and observing some distant object with his clear steady gaze. And then Minerva saw what had caught his interest. Circling near where he stood in ever-decreasing circles was a large dark fin. In an instant Minerva realised that he had no idea what it was and would not understand the danger. At that moment, the fin disappeared. Minerva acted. With a move so fast that human eye could not have seen it, she dived into the water and met the shark as it launched itself in the attack. Hand outstretched, she face the large predator; it stopped dead and swam at speed away, lucky still to be alive.

Maximus seemed startled. "What was that?" He asked curiously.

"volpes marina," (sea fox- the Roman name for shark)  Minerva replied.

"Ah, a sea fox! I have heard of them but never seen one. How curious. I wish I had seen more than just its fin!"

"I assure you, Maximus- if you had seen more, it would have been the last thing your eyes ever saw! They are very common in these waters. Let us return to the shore."

Dripping with the salty brine, they waded back onto the beach. Maximus noticed that there was now a low couch hung in white silk with a canopy above, draped in fine cloth set up majestically on the sand.  Linen towels were folded on the bed and Minerva took them, wrapping one round Maximus before attending to herself. She no longer seemed to notice the subservient role that she was assuming with him. He, of course, regarded it as natural for a woman to attend to his needs. It was ever thus.

They lay upon the couch and watched the waves pound on the shore, fanned by the cool breezes of the shady canopy. It was a perfect day, a moment to treasure but, as a single cloud passed over for an instant and darkened the sun's rays, Maximus realised that this was a fantasy, an illusion, a chimera. It could not last. Soon he would be returned to the brutal reality of his existence and this would all be a memory. A slight shiver passed over him.

But it moved away and the sun burst forth once more. Minerva reached for Maximus, he drew her to him and on that silken couch he gave himself to her; they made languid love under a bright blue sky in a place that Maximus was sure did not exist. No such idyll as this could ever be real; no earthly kingdom could this be, unless he had entered into the islands of the Blessed themselves. The man and goddess writhed and fell in erotic struggle, whispering words of love and passion, taking each other to the height of pleasure and then teasing away again to torment and prolong the tantalising sensation of pure joy. They both felt that they had touched the sublime and glimpsed the open gates of heaven. Then came the fall: tumbling, spinning, over the mighty cataract into the calm waters of the stream below. Minerva held him close, aware that he had given her a greater gift than either of them had dreamed of. For her divine eye told her of the miracle that was taking place that very instant within her womb.

Still reeling from the intensity of their passion, neither noticed at first that they were no longer alone. A young woman was walking past them on the beach. She seemed unaware that they were there. In fact it appeared that she was invisible to them; or were they invisible to her? Maximus watched her; she was a charming woman, bright and intelligent of eye, brave and fearless, dressed in clothes that surprised him. Long dark blue bracae on her legs and a short garment round her upper body, covering little. On her head there was a large hat of hide that seemed to be hung with corks.

"Who is she?" He asked of Minerva.

Minerva observed idly, little interested.

"Pus," she answered.

"Pus? Short for octopus?" he suggested.

"No! Macropus, " the goddess answered.

"Macropus? Big feet? But she has rather dainty feet..." he could see her little bare feet as she strolled along the beach, carrying her sandals in her hands.

"No! Macropus is an animal found in these parts It is a large bounding animal that carries its young in a pocket. The natives call it Kangaroo in their tongue. It is her agnomen."

"Pus? I think I would prefer Roo better," he murmured, as he returned to nibbling at Min's neck, his eyes still following the winsome girl as she disappeared from view.

The day on the beach passed by in a haze of love and sun drenched bathing, eating tasty morsels, which appeared as if by magic, and dozing in the heat of the afternoon. Minerva loved to observe Maximus, fascinated by his human needs. His hunger and his thirst, his sweet words of love, his little arrogances, his emotional vulnerability, his intelligent curiosity, his libidinous virility - even his need to relieve himself against the rocks at intervals, were all intoxicating opportunities for her to study the human male.

As the sun set below the horizon, they dressed and walked hand in hand to the palace above, ready to bathe and prepare for the evening ahead. While Maximus lay back in the marble pool with Minerva this time assisting his bath, handmaidens chased away, no longer willing to share her lover with them, the goddess continued to scrutinise his behaviour. Although he seemed relaxed, refreshed and happy enough, she could read something else in his mood. He was trying to be all the things she needed him to be but he could not disguise the man he was below the lover's façade.

Maximus was growing restless. This paradise was not a place for a man such as he. He needed challenges and action, he wanted to be free and his own master. Some men might be satisfied to spend their days in servitude to a beautiful woman and live a life of hedonism and ease. But not Maximus. Nor would Minerva have wished for him to be any other way. It was not fair to keep him. It would soon be time for him to go.

As she attended to his hair and smoothed fragrant oil over his body and then dressed him in fine clothes, Minerva spoke to Maximus of what she had learnt. He listened as she described how she loved him and respected him for the man he was and the man he would become. He blushed slightly as she praised his beauty and his manhood and sang of his courage and his strength. Finally she pulled him to his feet and stood before him, eye to eye, both meeting the other's gaze.

"Tomorrow you shall return to the world where you belong. I release you from your captivity. But know this, Maximus- you can never free my heart from its willing servitude to you. Throughout your life I will watch over you. I will be your goddess, the special protector of you and your family, and I will do my best to keep you safe from harm. I ask one favour. Give one more night of your life to me alone and then I will ask no more. When you find yourself back on the mountaintop tomorrow all this will be but a distant memory. Everything that has happened here will be a will of the wisp that you will recall only on summer nights when something on the breeze brings a feeling of familiarity and for an instant you will be back here again. And then the moment will pass. You may sense it when you lie in the arms of the woman you love and you bring her or she brings you to ecstasy- then you will feel again the thrill of the bliss we have shared but just for a tiny second and then it will be gone.

For all that you have brought me - and that includes more than you will ever know- I will give you two gifts. They will be revealed to you now but then you will forget them. When your eye next sees them, they will register only as a half recognised idea, the workings of your fevered brain in dreams.  Now - look into the pool!"

Minerva touched the pond where he had bathed and the water cleared. Before him was a beautiful dark haired woman, black eyed and slender, dusky and tall, her hair blowing freely in the sun. Maximus frowned. She was a stranger to him, but his heart was touched by her innocent beauty. Then the water rippled and settled again to glass. Another woman, tall, fair and strong. Thick tumbling hair of vibrant red-gold, eyes blue grey and fierce with courage and intelligence, clad in the clothes and weaponry of a warrior, scars scattered over her exposed flesh. He did not know her- she was a barbarian woman but he did not think she was a German. Maximus' blood rose at the sight of such a woman. What a partner she would make for a man!

"Who are these women?" Maximus inquired.

"They are my gift to you. They are the women who will love you and one day bear your children. They are the women you will love in return. I will not let just anyone be your mate. Only they will do."

"I only need one wife," Maximus observed.

"Your life will be long. We will see." Minerva replied darkly. And the vision faded.

Just before he turned away, Maximus saw the pond darken and then grow light again. Another woman stood staring out. She was also fair of face but different from the others. She was unafraid but not a warrior. There was a glint in her eye and a wild lack of restraint in her demeanour. Her clothes were such that he never seen before, figure hugging and revealing. "And she? Will she be mine?" Maximus asked of Minerva.

Minerva giggled. "Eventually. But it will be a long time hence. And she will share you - you will not be her only lover. It is her way."

"Her name?"

"Hmm. I'm not too sure. She goes by several names. But she seems to be some future queen. Of a country called Pervia or something like that. Pervis Regina  (the queen of perve! [or Pervia?]), I believe."

Maximus shook his head. There was plenty to think on for the future. But first tonight. Minerva. Pleasure unrestrained. Paradise Found.

Under a sky so dark and studded with brilliant stars, a deep blue jewelled canopy that seemed to stretch to the limits of the earth, Maximus and Minerva stood and faced each other. For minute upon minute they gazed like two statues, eyes locked in adoration of each other. Minerva knew she would never see his like again; Maximus was aware that, no matter how he fixed her in his mind, her image would all too soon slip away.

It was he who moved first and stepped in to break the silent trance between them. He spoke no word - merely touched her face and caressed her neck with his strong right hand while she flexed against his fingers in erotic response. Head thrown back, she bared her perfect throat and he bent to place his lips at the curve where neck meets chest. A shiver and a sigh was all that broke the silence of the still night.

With a smooth movement, as if she were a tiny child, Maximus swept her in his arms and stepped from the balcony into the chamber beyond. Their eyes were still held in a gaze as he placed her seated on the edge of the bed and knelt before her.

"This is the last time I can say these words. Minerva, powerful deity, goddess of wisdom, beautiful lady, my heart will always bear your name even if my lips no longer know how to say the word. You may work your magic and my memory will forget but my heart cannot. Somewhere, some of this will remain and my love for you will survive for evermore."

He raised his hands and freed her hair. With a slight fumble he unclasped her holding ties and the robe fell away. Along her flawless body, he slid his open palms as if they were able to imprint the feel of her on him forever. Minerva let him play, allowed him to follow with his mouth where his hands had so recently travelled. From head to foot, he kissed her, moaning all the while until he took each slender toe and sucked gently and the goddess writhed and ached to touch him herself.

Rising she stood before him and helped him to disrobe. Now she began her farewell. Hands running through the dark velvet of his hair, smoothing over the proud handsome face, slipping over the swell of his iron muscled shoulders, slipping along the bulbous arms, furred with hair, linking with his large fingers, her own disappearing in his awesome span and then raising her lips to taste his own. While they kissed, hands entwined and passion rising, the now-familiar spinning began, her head whirling with the myriad sensations that his proximity created.

Minerva had to break the spell; she still had farewells to make. Gently pushing against his bulky frame, she made a distance and returned to say goodbye. Her hands journeyed down his chest, fingering his scars and ruffling up the hair, massaging his breast and hardening his nipples. On to rest her hands on his waist and drop around his back to cup his rock hard buttocks, sweeping back to linger on the hair that thickened on his lower belly. With a slight pressure she pushed him back to fall onto the bed and he lay there meekly but his eyes, though sad, were smiling too. She touched his thighs, marvelled at the muscle and the shape, rubbed her face against the thick hair and traced the elegant form of his calves and lower legs.

For last she kept his manhood now rising hard and proud between them. Maximus lay watching her watching him and his own desire was fuelled by the effect. Minerva parted his legs, knelt between them and kissed the tip of her heart's desire, then feathered it with tiny kisses on and on, round and round, until she rested her mouth in the centre and showed her adoration of his mighty sac, the core of his manhood, the source of her fruition. These she kissed with almost reverence.

Lying by his side, she offered herself to him- he accepted the gift, and with tenderness and love, he rose above her to consummate their union in the age old tradition; man on top and ploughing the open fields of woman, scattering his seed into her ripe fecundity. Here were roles reversed. The goddess allowed herself to be subdued, her powers set aside as she meekly gave herself to his will. The warrior gathered his strength and vigour and channelled it into his loving of her, every muscle, sinew, each drop of blood focussed on his task.

On and on he rose and fell, over and over they moaned and cried out, faster and faster their bodies moved and their hearts pounded, nearer and nearer they drove each other but again and again they held back, aware that once the citadel was breached and the fury unleashed, then the end would surely come. But even goddesses cannot halt the workings of nature and finally, in one earth-shuddering clash of magnetic poles, they climaxed and screamed their fulfilment to the world.

Maximus sensed himself fall off the edge of the earth frantically trying to hold on. He tried to keep his grip, struggled to anchor himself to her, to keep Minerva wrapped around him, to remain buried within her sacred temple, but he was growing weak, slipping away, growing smaller and more distant, his voice nothing more than a whisper, tumbling, falling, spinning into the void...

Maximus woke up on a cold clear autumn morning wrapped in his cloak on the cold ground near the dying remains of a campfire. His horses whinnied as they grazed. He rubbed his hand over his face and found that he was beardless, just a slight stubble forming. It was days since he had shaved. Rising to sit cross-legged he tried to remember something. A dream? A vague memory of something insubstantial floated through his barely conscious mind. A woman? Maximus laughed and shook his head. Better find a woman soon. That must be the problem. But, he didn't feel that desperate hunger anymore. In fact he felt quite satiated. As if he had just... how strange!                   

Drinking water from a skin and pouring it over his face to wake himself up, Maximus kicked soil over the dying embers, rolled up his belongings, saddled up, mounted one of his horses and led the other behind him as he began his descent down the mountain towards the valleys where he was born. He felt strangely optimistic. Something was about to happen to him, something that would change his life. Mulling this over in the early morning air, he raised his speed and began to cover the ground more quickly. He suddenly could not wait to reach home.

A few hours later, as he neared the area of his hometown, he saw a young woman sitting on a wall by the roadside, a basket of wild flowers in her lap. She was watching two young men who were practising their swordplay in a field. The beautiful girl was laughing and calling merrily to them. As Maximus' horse drew near the three all stopped to view the stranger. Then the young men smiled.

"Max! When did you get back? Jupiter, it's good to see you!" It was the Corellii boys, men now, friends he had known since he was a child. They too must be back from their legions for the winter. What a lucky happenstance. That would improve his stay no end.

He jumped down from the horse and the men embraced. The young woman looked on curiously. Then her brothers remembered their manners.

"Maximus! You must meet our sister! She has grown a bit since last we met..." And Maximus turned to look at the beautiful dark-haired girl with the flashing brown eyes. She looked familiar...

Mount Olympus ... One year later

It was a great day for the Royal Family, a day that they had longed for through millennia. Jupiter and Juno, arrayed in finest silks and seated on their golden thrones, were host to a banquet of all the divinities of Heaven. Before were stretched the trestle tables loaded with heavenly food and drink where gods and goddesses, nymphs and spirits all gathered together in celebration. It was the naming day of the newborn child.

Minerva had given birth to her son three months before and had kept him by her for the first weeks of his life. But she knew that this could not last. No mortal child, even if half divine, could grow up on Olympus. He, like all such children, must be fostered on a human family who would believe him to be their own. There he would grow and prosper, watched over by his heavenly mother and standing out from his peers as a talent greater than the rest. Thus did mankind manage to raise bloodlines, which gave fruit to talented men and women with special gifts. It was the touch of the godhead that made them rise above the rest.

It was a great day but one tinged with sadness. Minerva could hardly bear to lose this precious child, the gift given to her by the only man she had ever loved. But not a day would pass when she did not hover near him to guide his path through life- and something told her this boy would often need her intervention.

It was the time in the proceedings for the gift giving. One by one each divine being came forth and gave the child a present to aid his life. The Muses gave him all the gifts of creativity- of words, of drama, of music, of dance. The god of war, Mars, gave him power and strength and a passion for the fight, Neptune gave him the power to swim and sail on water, Apollo made him a gifted poet and musician, Bacchus gave him a love of wine, the theatre and revelling, Vulcan made him fiery, Diana gave him a love of the chase, Eris -that goddess of conflict- gave him her double edged sword of trouble causing and fierce courage, Juno gave him a love of family and Jupiter a thundering voice and lightening in his eyes. Together with the intelligence of his divine mother and the handsome, noble bearing of his excellent and mighty father- this was indeed a blessed child.

One goddess, however, was missing. It was very bad form to fail to present oneself on such a day. Suddenly the great double doors blew open and in hurtled Venus. She was a complete state. Her clothes were in disarray- she had clearly dressed in a hurry- and her hair was flying wild and unbound. There was a high colour in her cheeks and a languid faraway look in her eyes. In her mouth was a little brown cheroot.

"My apologies, " she gasped quite out of breath, "...but I was ...coming..." She burst into a rather inane giggle. Perhaps she had been drinking? " I can't stay long. I have something to attend to it. It is very urgent. It is very big problem and needs my attention. A religious matter. One of my priests. Something has come up. We need to pour another libation on the altar. It could mean another night on my knees. But that's godhead for you!"

No one had the faintest idea what she was talking about. But Venus rarely talked much sense. But boy, did she give great...Jupiter stopped himself. It really wasn't the time or the place for thoughts like that.

"Right. This baby." Venus began, with little ceremony. "I give him beauty. The girls will love him. He'll be a little cupid. Actually I think he'll be a rather big Cupid. But, boy, will he give those girls some trouble before someone finally nails him. To make up for all the broken hearts, I also give him a fragile heart of his own. He'll have it broken, too. Only fair really, isn't it? And finally, because I am in such a good mood these days, I give him a special gift. He will be one of the world's greatest lovers. His sexual prowess will be legendary. His staying power will be remarkable. His powers of recuperation will be beyond belief. I think that covers it all really. Sorry, I have to dash. I think I hear something...Was that me or did someone just say 'mi amante?'" And Venus was away so fast that she appeared to the others to be nothing more than a streak of golden light flashing though the marble hall.

Minerva picked up her little boy and kissed him one last time. He had received valuable but dangerous gifts and he would not always use them wisely, this she knew.  Walking from the elegant banqueting chamber to her private chamber, she placed him at her breast once more, hoping that the gift of wisdom, straight from her milk to her child, might temper all the other powerful forces that would one day war within him.

Finally he slept and she placed him in his cradle. With a slight motion of her hand, he disappeared from her sight as she sent him forth to a wild and beautiful land on the edge of the world to a time far off in the future. But before she let him go, she lowered her mouth to his tiny ear and whispered his name. The little boy opened his blue green eyes and grinned.