Monument by Ian Graham

When Ballas is nearly beaten to death, kind strangers give him life-saving medical attention. He repays their charity by robbing them. But there’s more to the stolen artifact then just priceless gemstones. It holds ancient secrets the ruling religious leaders will stop at nothing to keep hidden. Ballas quickly becomes the most hated and feared man in the empire. He is hunted with a brutal relentlessness that equals only that of Ballas himself. His only chance for survival is escape to a mythical land on the far side of an impassable mountain range — the only place beyond the power of the Church of the Four Pilgrims.

Ballas is a vagrant with no greater interest than his next means of getting drunk or hiring a prostitute. He’s big, bad, and a kind of ugly that only looks more natural beat-up. Besides the ability to consume mass amounts of alcohol, his only talent is for violence and a spiteful survivabil... Read More