Acclaimed novelist Barbara Wood combines her superb storytelling gifts
with medical and historical fact to create the epic adventure of an
unusual and gifted young woman seeking her destiny in the ancient
healing arts.
Born into the tumultuous world of ancient Antioch, Selene is orphaned at
birth. But before her father dies, he leaves a puzzling clue to her
heritage: she has come from the gods and has a special destiny to
fulfill. In the coming years, Selene studies the primitive healing arts
with Mera, the healer-woman who adopts her. She learns how to lower
fevers by brewing Hecate's Cure from the willow tree, how to apply green
mold to an open wound to prevent infection, and most important, how to
calm a patient by summoning the inner power of the "soul flame." But on
her sixteenth birthday, Selene falls in love with Andreas, a passionate
and troubled surgeon. When fate cruelly separates them, Selene's search
for Andreas takes her to the great centers of civilization in the
ancient world--Egypt, Babylon, and Rome. Desperate to find Andreas,
Selene is torn between love and her dreams of healing when a
revolutionary vision brings her to the fulfillment of her destiny--and
the dawn of modern medicine.
