From the daring and critically acclaimed master of historical fiction Conn Iggulden, DARIEN is the first book of 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 ... Praise for C. F. Iggulden 'A master storyteller' Sunday Express'Iggulden is in a class of his own' Daily Mirror'One of our finest historical novelists' Daily Express