Judith Tarr

Queen in all but name, one woman's battle to rule her kingdom, from the Court of Jerusalem to the glorious city of Byzantium. Melisende was the oldest daughter of Baldwin of Jerusalem, a princess of the Franks and, since she had no brothers, heir to the Crusader Kingdom. The crown would go to the man who married her, and after to her son. But Melisende was a strong woman; the law that forced her to marry instead of taking the crown in her own name...

Passion and politics, Rome and Egypt, clash in an epic recreation of the story of Cleopatra, Egypt's last queen, and her lover, Anthony. Cleopatra 's priestess cousin Dione , standing in the shadows, is witness to all Cleopatra's romantic and military alliances. The queen is determined to maintain her hold on the throne of Egypt despite Rome's persistent attacks. But what happens when a queen falls in love with the man she intended only to use for...

For a long, brutal century, the Kingdom of Lower Egypt has been occupied by the “Vile Asiatics,” the conquerors called the Shepherd Kings. With their horses and chariots they overwhelmed the armies of Egypt and swept over the Delta and the sacred cities.

Iry, daughter of an old noble house, the Sun Ascendant, has been enslaved by the bearded conquerors. But her new master is born of a different blood, son of the priestess

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In the grandfathers' time, when few yet living had been born, the People worshipped the horse, and served him, and took the gifts that he gave them: his meat, his hide, the milk of his mares. But he had not yet granted to men the greatest gift of all: the gift of riding on his back, and racing the wind. Sparrow is a shaman's daughter in a tribe that forbids women to be kings, to be shamans, to be anything but silent and tractable servants to the all-powerful...