Voyagers: Flight to Freedom

Flight to Freedom, the first of the Voyagers series, tells how fate conspires to bring the three main characters together, a young girl, the Princess Keti, a young boy, Hal, an orphan and a thief and Shakata, a giant warrior with superlative fighting skills and how in adversity their indestructible friendship is forged.

In Othanya, Keti discovers that her ruthless stepmother, who had seized power as Regent, on the death of Keti’s father the King, plans to have her killed. She manages to free Shakata from the dungeon in which he had be imprisoned for daring to come to her defense. Together they escape from the palace only to be accidentally transported to far off Mazuma where they are taken captive.

In distant Norhelia, Hal stows away on a merchant ship to avoid the hangman’s noose. He is one of the few who survives when the ship is wrecked on the rocks off the coast of Mazuma but is captured soon after he reaches the shore.

It is in the city’s slave market that Keti and Shakata first encounter Hal. The three are sold into slavery. Keti becomes a house slave. Shakata and Hal are bought by the disreputable owner of a school of professional athletes and gladiators.
In an atmosphere poisoned by political plotting and palace intrigue, the three inadvertently become the focus of a growing opposition to the self indulgent Emperor Grosso and his corrupt rule.

Massive wagers are placed on the outcome of the increasingly spectacular life or death contests in which Shakata and Hal are forced to compete and they and Keti join forces to win each battle to gain their freedom.