The Twelve Tribes

Kidnapped from her parents at age five and baptized into the brand new Santa Cruz mission, Esther grows up an abused neophyte in slavery to the Spanish. When she is a young woman in the year 1806, she makes a desperate escape into the vast wilderness of Northern California. By chance, she meets a mysterious people called the Twelve Tribes who have a strange culture based upon astrology. As Esther travels among them, she searches for a home among the tribes. But first, she must find healing, cast out her demons, and reawaken her slumbering sexuality. Wandering north, she experiences California as it was when hundreds of small tribes lived by the rhythms of nature and the ancient laws of treaty, trade, and tribute. And she learns that although you can run from your captors and your past, you cannot run from your demons. The Twelve Tribes is a historical fantasy, blending truth, fantasy, and history into an intoxicating blend.