Another self pub for those interested in historical fiction/fantasy.
The Grain God (The Grain God Trilogy) by Susan Shepherd
http://www.amazon.com/The-Grain-God-...=the+grain+god
Quote:
He is the most feared and elusive assassin of the 17th century B.C. Mediterranean world, known as Rush because of the swiftness and stealth with which he overwhelms his victims. When they are found in the morning they wear a mark carved under their left eye which comes to be known as the Tear of the Bull—the Mark of the Assassin. Having learned the arts of war and murder as a highly successful Hittite soldier and commander, Rush uses that knowledge as an assassin and then multiplies his riches through trade under the guise of Ameg the Merchant, a foppish Mycenaean businessman. As Ameg his travels and dealings with the seats of power and wealth throughout the Mediterranean enable him to gather the intelligence needs as an assassin.
Rush is the master of his world until, in the spring of 1620 B.C., he is hired by the King of Cyrus, the Southern Kingdom of Minoan Crete, to kill the sixteen year old slave boy newly proclaimed the Grain God of Knossos, the rival Northern Kingdom.
He considers it an easy contract. But when he attempts to take the boy’s life he finds himself captivated by the lad's animal beauty, grace and oddity. This momentary faltering allows the boy, a fantastic athlete himself, to escape. But Rush is hounded by his sudden, solitary failure and he becomes obsessed with it, and tortured by the knowledge that if not he, another assassin wil be hired to kill him, before the boy is sacrificed, like his predecessors, to Rah. To further complicate matters the volcano on the Island of Thera, ninety miles north of the Minoan Empire, has begun to steam. Rush alone knows Crete itself is doomed. What he does not know is that the eruption of Thera will be the greatest natural catastrophy in known human history.
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