Note: Shortlisted for Children's Book of the Year at the 2000 Whitbread Awards. (wikipedia)

Synopsis: From the back cover of a Harcourt advance reading copy: "The siege of Troy has lasted almost ten years. Inside the walled city, food is growing scarce and the death toll is rising. From the heights of Mount Olympus, the Gods watch with interest. Bored with the endless, dreary war, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, turns her attention to two sisters: Marpessa, who is gifted with God-sight and serves as handmaiden to Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world; and Xanthe, who is kind and loving and tends the wounded soldiers in the Blood Room. When Eros Eros fits and arrow to his bow and lets it fly, neither sister will escape its power."