The Cyrus Syndrome

Darius Darkfire has been told by his mother since birth that he’s a direct descendant of Cyrus the Great who ruled over the ancient Persian Empire conquered by Alexander some years after the monarch died in five-twenty-nine BC. A ring purported to have been given to the king by a prophet has been passed down through the generations, ceremoniously bestowed every seventy years on the oldest child of the one possessing it at the time. Never to be worn except by Christ at His Second Coming, the ring must be kept in a container chosen by the recipient at the ceremony of presentation. Believing it to be only a legend, Darius-in the presence of ten friends as required by tradition-reluctantly accepts the ring from his mom, who inherited it when her mother died. A senior at Southern Methodist University, he stashes the heirloom and forgets all about it. Nine years later he falls in love with a woman named Robyn Tuscany and proposes. His mother embarrasses him by telling his fiancé about the ring and Robyn soon becomes obsessed with it. When her ex-boyfriend Raul Wyncote enters the picture, Darius discovers there’s much more to the legacy than what his ancestors knew. Allied with a mysterious Arab named Arash Arshia, called The Mede, Wyncote presides over a large secret organization with a most sinister purpose. The two cult leaders need the legendary ring to complete their mission and will stop at nothing to obtain it. By the time Darius becomes aware of their plot his life is in grave jeopardy and his only hope for survival is uncovering the real truth behind Cyrus’s band of gold.