The Destruction of the Inn

Book 4: Ulster Cycle

by Randy Lee Eickhoff

Genres: International Crime & Mystery

Synopsis

Randy Lee Eickhoff continues the Celtic Ulster Cycle; following up his highly acclaimed retelling of The Three Sorrows, with The Destruction of the Inn. Part impacted myth, part heroic saga, and part literary tour de force; this is the tale of a king who dares to ignore the prophecy that foretells his fate.

Conaire Mór's reign has ushered in a period of great happiness and good fortune, but his three foster brothers take advantage of his position and plunder the countryside. Conaire refuses to put them to death, however, and out of brotherly love banishes them to Scotland. Where they fall in with merciless sea pirates who raid the coasts of England and Ireland, brutally slaying all whom stands against them, until finally the three brothers come back to the land of Conaire Mór.

Filled with the adventure and tragedy, and told in the style that Randy Lee Eickhoff has made his own, The Destruction of the Inn is a story of Ireland's past, and one of her most enduring tales.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Release date: April 1, 2011

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Print pages: 288

Sample

The Destruction of the Inn

Part One
Conaire's Last Supper at Da Dearga's Hostel
And you thought it wouldn't happen to you: the burning walls, the gasping for air, the place surrounded by a coming enemy that looks like you, and talks like you, with your same last name, armed to the teeth and shouting--all because you entered the kingdom naked, carrying a stone and were bowed down to by an admiring populace. Well think again; the curse is on you--prince, king though you are, and handsome and wise, with an arm that could kill thousands and a heart that could make them live. Didn't you know it's the severed head that speaks the loudest, the scattered remains of the dismembered hero that become the seedsof future salvation?Beware of the three red men in front of you. You cannot escape their duplicitous gaze. See them sitting at your table, eating your food, nodding their heads and smiling. They laugh at your jokes and call for wine. All the while wind is putting pressure on the door. Eat up. Be brave, be strong, be holy. Do what you must; do what you have to, when you have to. When have you ever done anything else? It is your fate, know it, and the fate of those who follow. It is only the whole green world that is watching.
--Mícheál O'Ciardha
Copyright © 2001 by Randy Lee Eickhoff