The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1)

by Bernard Cornwell

Only the gods tell him what to do, and you should beware of men who take their orders from the gods.

Start your killers young, before their consciences are grown. Start them young and they will be lethal.

War is fought in mystery. The truth can take days to travel, and ahead of truth flies rumor, and it is ever hard to know what is really happening, and the art of it is to pluck the clean bone of fact from the rotting flesh of fear and lies.