5,203 years ago, eastern invaders devastate villages in the Sakros Mountains. Survivors flee westward seeking refuge among the powerful riverine cities of Reilend. Eleven orphaned teenagers band together and join fleeing widow Weida, Princess of an overrun kingdom far to the east. Arriving at Ausgrenor, she seeks Patros, the widower-brother of her late husband, and asks him to redeem her from suttee. They marry. Fortified allied cities north of Ausgrenor fall. Terrified, Ausgrenor's citizens regress into a forbidden past. The king plots to rob and kill the princess's new husband, then exiles him as a ploy. Neighboring Bedu tribes withdraw into the desert. Invaders encircle the city. Torn between ancestral loyalties and his new family's survival, the husband must fight or flee. Where can they find refuge? Whom can they trust? It's now or never. Thus begins the six-novel Raising Up Pharaoh epic, a romantic adventure chronicling the origins of the city-states in the Fertile Crescent at the dawn of written history, and the planting of the longest lasting civilization and deepest cultural roots of today's world. The series is written for readers of all ages. The tone is controlled by zooming back to avoid close-ups of violence or sexuality, without diminishing the story's intensity. The tale unfolds through the differing viewpoints of the teenagers, the couple, others drawn to them, and their foes. This first book's setting ranges across the western mountains of what is now called Iran, southern Iraq between the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the marshes of their delta with the Persian Gulf, and is bounded on the west by the Saudi Arabian desert. In later books, the setting expands throughout the Middle East, West Asia, and North Africa. Each book has its own maps.