Italy, 1493. Returning from the new world to the old, Skiouros is confronted with lands ruled by a strict and unyielding religion, and which yet still contrive to be corrupt and debased, as the inquisition takes hold in Spain and the Vatican seethes under the rule of the Borgia family. Through this world of intolerance, greed and wickedness, the former thief-turned-explorer finally sets his mind to that mission that has underlain his every move since leaving the great city of Istanbul some two years earlier: the death of the usurper sultan, Cem. Gathering old friends and new, Skiouros travels...

Five years have passed since Skiouros left Istanbul with his brother's remains and a nebulous goal to make the usurper prince Cem pay for Lykaion's death. Skiouros is older and wiser, and has come to understand the dreadful price that vengeance exacts from its wielders. Saved from the French authorities by Dragi, the Romani crewman of a Turkish galley, he and his friend Parmenio are bound once more for the east. But Dragi's aid in desperate times comes with a price: the Romani await Skiouros' return to the great city of Constantine, bringing about the conclusion of a series of events that has...

51 BC. In the aftermath of the dreadful siege of Alesia the tribes of Gaul lie broken and sparse, and yet the fires of rebellion still burn in the hearts of a few. As Caesar and his army continue to pacify the land wherever revolt can be found, a new conspiracy is rising. Lucterius of the Cadurci, survivor of Alesia, seeks to raise a new great revolt, building an army in his homeland while a small group of dangerous warriors embark upon a secret and dangerous mission to rebuild all that was lost in that great siege. Meanwhile, Marcus Falerius Fronto tries to adjust to life as a wine merchant...