Earth Goddess
Subtitle: The Pagan's Trilogy, Book 3
Series: The Pagans Trilogy
Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
Published: October 28, 1990
Place of publication: Now available in eBook formats at RichardHerley.com
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780517057612
Subjects: Historical Fiction; Fiction - Pre-Historic; eBooks (available at RichardHerley.com)
Genres: Historical Fiction / Action
First sentence: "In the grounds below his fortress Lord Heite, Gehan of the Gehans, had built a small pavilion by the lake." ...
Description: Blurb from the first edition (1984)

It is 3000 BC. The cult of the Earth Goddess is controlled throughout the vast empire of Europe by the secretive and unscrupulous Red Order, the priesthood which manipulates all power for its own ends. The land that is now called England has been annexed and its lord, Brennis Gehan Fifth, betrayed and murdered. The Lady Altheme, his consort, has escaped to the forest. She is carrying his son, Paoul, rightful inheritor of the Valdoe domain.

But his inheritance is usurped by his illegitimate half-brother. Ignorant of his parentage, Paoul is orphaned, sold into the priesthood, and sent to the mainland citadel for instruction. His teachers predict a great destiny for him. Only later, beyond the point of no return, do his doubts begin ...

This remarkable novel, complete in itself, follows The Stone Arrow and The Flint Lord and concludes The Pagans, a trilogy whose theme finds form in Paoul's disillusionment and in his illicit passion for his half-brother's wife, the gentle and beautiful girl who becomes for him the true Goddess of the Earth. The story of their love races to a climax of tragedy that signals devastating consequences for the evil men of the priesthood and the empire.
Notes: Available in downloadable eBook; multiple formats available at RichardHerley.com
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