Calesh Saissan is a captain of the Hand of the Lord, a military Order fighting in Tura d'Madai. But he has no faith in the God he seems to serve. The purpose of the Hand is to distract attention, so the All-Church will not notice the heresy growing in its homeland of Sartene. Now word has reached Calesh that the charade has failed. The heresy has been revealed, and the All-Church will turn its next Crusade west, into Sartene. So Calesh comes home, back to the land he left eleven years ago to escape the sorrows of his youth. Back to another war, this one for survival. With him come the...

The war for Sartene has begun. In the city of Mayence the people prepare defences and wait for the All-Church army to come. Everything depends on Calesh Saissan and his friends, but an assassin has slipped into the city and is waiting for his chance, even before the army approaches. In the mountains, the Lady of the Hidden House teaches her lore to Farajalla, her chosen heir. Because the ancient arts must survive, or nothing Calesh does will matter. But as the All-Church moves to surround Mayence, it seems nothing of Sartene will escape at all."

The fractious, bickering Greeks have a High King now. There are fewer wars. Men say the Age of Heroes ended when Theseus leapt into the sea. But far afield there are heroes still, not all of them Greek. Eastern islands have been conquered and settled, towns founded on strange shores in the west. Crete itself has fallen, mighty Minos thrown down. Greek eyes begin to range wider, to powerful Egypt in the south and the rich trade routes of the east, watched over by the Topless Towers of Troy. Greek kings long for that wealth. The Trojan king longs for the return of his sister, abducted years...