Xaghra's Revenge
An outline of an historical and urban fantasy. Magic Realism

Copyright Geoff Nelder 2011

Fact:
" The world's most ancient building is on Gozo (Ggantija temple at Xaghra, (c. 3600-2500 BC predates Stonehenge and the pyramids)
" In 1551 the Turkish buccaneer, Dragut, sailed a pirate fleet to Gozo and abducted the population, and sailed them to North Africa.
" The abducted were kept on the ships while Dragut won a siege against the Knights of St John at Tripoli. The surviving abducted were taken and sold into slavery at Constantinople, Tripoli and Tarhuna, Libya.
" Some of the abducted had relatives on Malta sufficiently rich to buy them back, but most lost contact with their families.

Fiction:
Stjepan is a farmer on Gozo at the time of the abduction. He hides his baby son in a cave but his wife, Lydia, is brutalised. The need for revenge is set and achieved but it takes many threads, twisting through centuries and bloodlines. Stjepan doesn't realize the cave is part of the buried Ggantija: the world's oldest building with the Gozo spirit, Tzabib.

A cusp in time allows Reece and Zita (descendents of Stjepan and Lydia) to meet in modern Lyon. They don't know each other but Tzabib, ensures they become lovers. A two-part Gozo talisman needs to be together at the right time - with Reece and Zita - for the Knights of Malta to secure their victory and for revenge. The Ottoman's spirit tries to keep Reece and Zita apart.

Reece is an American, who admits he needs to lose weight and be more daring. His lust for Zita is not under his control. When he realizes that ancient spirits influence his decisions, this epiphany changes his character. Zita and Reece become lovers yet untrusting, culturally apart but magnetised together.

When Zita discovers they are descended from survivors of the 1551 Gozo abduction, she is incensed and is compelled to punish Reece. To his amazement he finds lost (abductee) relatives in Libya. His guide tricks him into a life-threatening situation. His ancestral connection enables a weird escape, bonding him to Tzabib.

Back in 1551 the population of Gozo are crammed onto a fleet of galleys. The mild-mannered Stjepan is hardened by survival and revenge-lust. Kerim Dragut takes Lydia to his seraglio in Constantinople. During an earthquake, Kerim dies bedding Lydia and another woman. Lydia escapes to Gozo.

Zita plots against Reece, however, she has remorse and confusion on her return to Gozo to visit her ancestral home. The spirit of Lydia appears to keep the Zita out of the clutches of the Ottoman spirit but this fails when it appears in the guise of two Australians, charming their way into her life.

On contemporary Gozo, Reece is imprisoned in Calypso's Cave, but escapes and finds Zita. She is shocked to discover she is descended from the pirates. Lydia manifests and bargains with the Ottoman spirit. History needs to ensure the Knights of Malta keep their 1565 siege victory even if an awful consequence is the price of giving up Lydia's baby in 1551 or the unborn child of Zita and Reece. To give up Lydia's baby could mean the birthline to Reece wouldn't have happened, so Zita's unborn is offered.

At the cusp in time, Zita and Reece watch the siege of Malta in 1565. They see Stjepan fight Dragut. Who will win? Will the Siege of Malta remain a Knights victory? Zita and Reece face a future together but with such a strange provenance.

After reading this novel, you will never see Gozo in the same light again.

Research photographs on Gozo