Artemis Rising: A Novel
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On the voyage home to the Azores Islands, Eva accepts the pagan name of Arethusa but learns too late that her life will mirror the Greek nymph’s tragic end. Her mother reveals that her destiny lies with Diogo, the shipowner’s volatile son. But Eva has a vision of another...
When the ship founders in a storm off the coast, Tristan, a local boy, saves her life and steals her heart. Destined to be with Diogo yet aching for Tristan’s forbidden love, Eva must somehow choose between them, or fate will choose for her.
This is an engrossing novel in which several strands of myth combine to create a complex yet beautifully simple romance. It is at its highest level an exploration of fundamental philosophical questions—the debate between fate and choice, the nature of love and desire, the tenacious and often dangerous hold of belief on the human psyche. At bottom, and the reason why you will love it, this is a bildungsroman about a girl finding her way to adulthood and a story about two lovers both separated and entwined by their beliefs.
1: DAUGHTER OF THE MOON
24 August 1893
Strange how our names become our fate. No matter my fate, given a choice, still I would choose that name: Arethusa, nymph of the old world, daughter of the moon. Is the name a curse or a blessing? Perhaps neither. Perhaps my mother has merely destined me for a love of watery things. It is true. The sea is in my blood, slipping quicksilver through my veins. And the Moon Goddess is to be my mistress. No more Eva now. No more a daughter of God.
Eva’s fingers shook as she held the match to the candlewick. The chill night air seeped through her thin shift. Even in deep summer, Massachusetts still clung to the remnants of spring when the sun sank below the foothills. But it was not the wind that gave her shivers.
“Calm down,” Mãe said, laying her hand over Eva’s to still them. “Your Pai will be gone for hours and Artemis will rise soon enough.”
Eva held the match closer to the candle. The wind snatched out the flame with a huff. Her hand trembled when she drew another match, and she hated that her mother saw it.
With the changing of her name, she would deny her father’s faith and embrace her mother’s. A simple choice. And a dangerous one. A pagan in a Catholic world had need of secrecy and courage. But for her it was more than a question of faith. This choice would direct her destiny. Her namesake was a nymph devoted to Artemis, Goddess of the Moon. A nymph who was chased by the obsessive river god Alpheus into the depths of the sea and back. Yet in the end, Alpheus found Arethusa and merged his waters with hers until they became one.
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