In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle. Daughter of a slave taken from fallen Troy, chosen at the age of seven to be the voice of the Lady of the Dead, she is destined to counsel kings.<BR><BR>When nine black ships appear, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must decide between the life she was born for and a most perilous adventure - to join the remnant of her mother's people in their desperate flight. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest, and only she can dare the gate of the Underworld to lead him to his destiny.<BR><BR>In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story.<BR><BR>Just as Marion Zimmer Bradley's <I>The Mists of Avalon </I>breathed new life into Arthurian legend, BLACK SHIPS<I> </I>evokes the world of ancient Greece with beautiful, haunting prose, extraordinary imagination, and a profoundly moving story.