The Mask of God (Fate's Arrow Saga) (Volume 1)

Are the gods real? For Alarion Aravon, idle youngest son of Sevakand's ruling house, finding out suddenly becomes a matter of life or death. His seventeenth nameday explodes into treachery and assassination, catapulting him into the role of second most powerful man in Sevakand and a race to find the traitor who murdered his brother and is dragging the whole world toward war. The threads of treachery unexpectedly lead to the heathen tribes in the southern wastes, and then through Temple doors where no sane man would want to follow. Yet he must, for though the gods of Ariel should not even exist, of late they have demonstrated powers that smack of the bad old days of the Hadí theocracy, when priests of the mysterious One God could kill--or heal--with a glance. Alarion's gods have always been his adored brothers, but now one is dead and the other clinging to a throne he never wanted. To save him, Alarion will pursue the traitor into whatever nest of power he tries to hide.

There's just one thing. . . All those dueling gods know what Alarion does not: he is the key to everyone's plans. Sly Stoneshaker, god of earthquakes, wants to be the supreme deity on Ariel. His mortal pawn wants to be king. Death wants to keep an overdue date with Alarion, and Fate--well, she wants to reshape the whole future and use Alarion to do it. And the trickster Thousandth God, the ungovernable lord of chaos, fairly itches to toss his dice, Chance and Destiny, across the whole pattern.

When mortal and immortal ambitions smash into confrontation at last, Alarion becomes the nexus of an agonizing choice between brotherly love and royal duty that might change the world--or destroy it.