The Steppe Saga
Brothers shall fight | and fell each other,
And sisters' sons | shall kinship stain;
Hard is it on earth, | with mighty whoredom;
Axe-time, sword-time, | shields are sundered,
Wind-time, wolf-time, | ere the world falls;
Nor ever shall men | each other spare.
—The Poetic Edda, “Völuspá” (Prophecy of the Seeress)
Determined to choose her own fate, an ambivalent young warrior confronts the dark consequences of war and the true meaning of sacrifice.
Fierce tribes of Skythian horsemen have roamed the steppes north of the Black Sea for centuries. Now, with expanding Greek colonial influence in the south and mounting pressure from rivals to the east, the Skythian people face stark choices, asking if—and how—they can hold back the tides of colonialism and inter-tribal warfare. Their king has three ambitious sons, each by different mothers—one Greek, one Thrakian, and one Skythian. One day, their contest for succession will touch off an epic battle, not just for power but for the soul of a people.
Into this chaos comes Anaiti, a young warrior who, for good or ill, will forever alter the fate of the kingdom. The Steppe Saga is the story of her journey.
Set during the fateful reign of Scythian King Ariapeithes (fifth century BCE) and the bloody struggle for succession between his three sons, the trilogy gives voice to the unsung barbarian culture whose real female warriors inspired Greek myths—and fears—about Amazons. Exploring a vanished world of astonishing brutality and beauty, it is a story about the dark paths our lives take and the war—or peace—we make with adversity.
Of Wind and Wolves
The Steppe Saga I
“You don’t yet know what you are. What you truly love or hate. What you’ll kill or die for. Not until you’ve been out there...”
As her arranged marriage nears, young Amazon warrior Anaiti embarks on a final mission to make her first kill, attempting to reconcile herself to the duties of both warrior and wife. Determined to remain free, is she willing to sabotage her mission at any cost?
When Anaiti reluctantly agrees to marry the aging king of the Skythian nomads to forge an alliance, she never expects the price of peace will be an enemy’s scalp—or that she’ll have to take it with her own hands.
Trained since youth in riding and archery, her education was cut short, and she's never faced true combat. Though she has no taste for bloodshed, her desire to remain free outweighs her fear. Thrown into the lawless wilderness, she joins a ruthless warband whose loyalties and suspicions are as fierce as the unforgiving steppe. There, her skills and courage are tested to the edge, and she forms an intense bond with their commander—a formidable warrior who believes Anaiti possesses a rare gift. Determined to evade her fate, Anaiti devises a daring plan to stay with the warband. But as her defiance threatens the pact between kingdoms, she must decide if her longing for freedom is worth the cost—of countless lives, perhaps her own.
Of Wind and Wolves is the first volume in The Steppe Saga, a haunting and subversive retelling of events recorded by Herodotus. Set against a backdrop of astonishing beauty and brutality, it reveals the lost wisdom, traditions, and beliefs of the Scythian people, whose powerful women once inspired Greek myths of the Amazons.
The Gifts of Heaven
The Steppe Saga II
“The night would be starless, at least for a time, and we’d be left to wander, groping in the dark. ”
In a kingdom torn by a struggle for succession, one woman has fought too hard and sacrificed too much to let the land she loves—and her place in it—just slip away. And perhaps she’s not as powerless as they think.
PeaceWeaver
The Steppe Saga III
“To be a Skythian means knowing what it is to burn everything you have to keep everything you love.”
On the brink of civil war, an outlaw warrior is forced to question everything she thought she knew about trust, honor, and forgiveness. Can she and her companions still save their country? Or does the place they’re trying to restore no longer exist?