From the daring and critically acclaimed master of historical fiction Conn Iggulden, DARIEN is the first book in the Empire of Salt, an epic new fantasy series of spellbinding imagination . . .TWELVE FAMILIES. ONE THRONE.The city of Darien stands at the weary end of a golden age. Twelve families keep order with soldiers and artefacts, spies and memories, clinging to a peace that shifts and crumbles. The people of the city endure what they cannot change.Here, amongst old feuds, a plot is hatched to kill a king. It will summon strangers to the city – Elias Post, a hunter, Tellius, an old swordsman banished from his home, Arthur, a boy who cannot speak, Daw Threefold, a chancer and gambler, Vic Deeds, who feels no guilt – and Nancy, a girl whose talent might be the undoing of them all.As the sun sets, their arrival inside the walls will spark a series of explosive events. Before the sun returns, six destinies will have been made – and lost – in Darien.Welcome to the Empire of Salt, where sword and sorcery are at their finest . . .