Lord and Slave -- Their Destinies Were Bound to an Exquisite Gold Statue
LIONELLO ANDREAS -- Soldier and shipbuilder, as honorable as he is strong, obligated by vows to protect the Wind Dancer -- even when he yearns to be free from the bonds that hold him, even when seized by a true passion as sudden and ferocious as the fires that threaten to engulf all he holds dear.
SANCHIA -- With a rare brand of remarkable beauty, and her wits her only armor against an angry world, she can withstand abuse and even torture, but her will crumbles in the face of the unexpected cruelty of kindness.
CATERINA ANDREAS -- The magnificent and strong-willed matriarch who would dare anything to protect Mandara, the Andreas domain -- she is a fierce warrior whenever fate hurls its arrows ... yet only the tender nurturing of her splendid rose garden betrays the warm heart within her regal breast.
LORENZO VASARO -- Cold, calculating, an assassin by trade, his only weakness is his passionate attachment to the Andreas family -- an attachment so deep, so obsessive it brings him to the brink of destruction.
MARCO ANDREAS -- Gentle, sensitive, a painter who is the opposite of Lion, his impetuous brother -- Marco burns with chaste but forbidden love for the one woman he can never have.
FRANCISCO DAMARI -- Rising from the house of an Andreas mistress, he became a hateful force whose appetites for power and women were as twisted as the mazes he delighted in building to "entertain" his "guests." Determined to destroy Mandara and its greatest treasure, the Wind Dancer, he plots with the rapacious, cunning Cesare Borgia and Cesare's ruthless father, the Pope.
GUIDO CAPRINO -- Procurer of prostitutes and thieves, he leads Lion to Sanchia. But his soul and his information belong to the highest bidder. When his greed couples with the jealousy of a vengeful whore, the lives of Sanchia and Lion are catapulted into a terrifying realm -- where death might provide the only tolerable escape.
