Crispin the mosaicist, having finally achieved his journey to fabled Sarantium, wants nothing more than to confront the challenges of his art high on the scaffolding of destiny - but in Sarantium no man may easily withdraw from the turmoils of court and city, or forget that the presence of the half-world is always close by.
From the east comes Rustem of Kerakek, the physician, who learns that saving the life of Bassania's King of Kings is not enough to ensure a man's fortune. He must find his own balancing of ambition, healing and death, as he, too, is drawn into the deadly webs of Sarantium.
This eagerly-awaited conclusion to the magnificent sequence begun with 'Sailing To Sarantium' finds a huge cast of characters from all walks of life caught up in rumours of war and perilous intrigue as all the threads of the tale come spectacularly together in a time shaped by violent upheaval - and the memory of fire in the streets.
