Ruler. Puppet Master. Killer.
Glory. Death. Well-born Athenian cavalry officer, Kineas, fought
shoulder to shoulder with Alexander in his epic battles against the
Persian hordes. But on his return from the east to his native city, he
finds not glory but shame - and exile.
With nothing to his name but his military skills, Kineas agrees to lead
a band of veterans to the city of Olbia, where the Tyrant is offering
good money to train the city's elite cavalry. But soon Kineas and his
men find they have stumbled into a deadly maze of intrigue and
conspiracy as the Tyrant plots to use them as pawns in the increasingly
complex power games between his own citizens, and the dread military
might of Macedon.
Caught between his duty to the Tyrant, his loyalty to his men and a
forbidden love affair with a charismatic Scythian noblewoman, Kineas
must call on all his Athenian guile, his flair on the battlefield, and
even - he is convinced - the intervention of the gods, to survive.