Guy Gavriel Kay bestselling author of the groundbreaking novels Under Heaven and River of Stars once again visits a world that evokes one that existed in our own past this time the tumultuous period of Renaissance Europe - a world on the verge of war where ordinary lives play out in the grand scheme of kingdoms colliding. From the small coastal town of Senjan notorious for its pirates a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring from the wealthy city-state of Seressa famous for its canals and lagoon come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the Grand Khalif at his request - and possibly to do more - and a fiercely intelligent angry woman posing as a doctor''s wife in her role of a spy. The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the clever younger son of a merchant family - with ambivalence about the life he''s been born to live. And farther east a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif - to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming. As these lives entwine their fates-and those of many others - will hang in the balance when the khalif sends out his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world. . Language: English