A Norman by the name of Tancred makes landfall in Sicily with a motley international mercenary crew. A figure of mystery and danger, he soon proves himself a fierce blade and a cunning strategist, but why has he come? Revenge on the embattled Lord Harald now besieging Taormina? The fabulous wealth of the Qaids hidden within the city? Why does Tancred travel with a papal legate who calls him Robert? What disgraceful past is he trying desperately to hide? It's every man for himself in this intrigue of shifting alliances and sudden death, set against the backdrop of Sicily's Norman conquest."This is a book that all adventure fans should read. I can see it having a cross border appeal with anyone who loves fantasy and those that have a yearning for this sort of historical setting. It also has on show the ethical ambiguity that you saw in a movie like Flesh and Blood. Remorselessly violent and brutal. Everyone is at risk of falling to the swing of an axe." Never Iron Anything

Robert, the disgraced Duke of Normandy, is losing favor with his mercenary army. They've been holed up above Catania too long, without battle or plunder. His right-hand man Guillaume is getting notions whispered into his head by a wily monk. His friend Harald, leader of the Varangians, is torn between his allegiance to Strategos Maniakis and his love for the Greek general's sister. But who is Robert, really? Why is he here, and what was he groomed for? New friendships are tested by old grievances against a backdrop of shifting alliances and secret agendas in this spellbinding second volume.

The Normans have their Byzantine enemies on the run. After being forced to cede Sicily, the Basileus is resorts to reinstating his formerly disgraced Strategos, Maniakis, to stem the Norman conquest. Caught up in these political machinations are a pair of warlords: Robert, a former Norman duke, and Harald, leader of the fierce and feared Varangians. Their friendship, forged in the heat of battle, now falters in peacetime. Robert questions his own quest for vengeance, while Harald mistrusts his advisor's seeming lack of resolve. New loves are born and old ones rekindled. Meanwhile, the Pope schemes from Rome, dispatching spies and assassins...

Robert is dead, says the man born as Robert. My name is Tancred now. Whoever he is, he is still on the run with Eudoxia and Marie. But Guillaume and his men are hot on the heels of the former Norman lord. When they catch up, Tancred allows himself to be taken while his traveling companions escape. Now that Guillaume has his former friend back in his clutches, he's not about to let him go. But Guillaume isn't the only one in his own camp with designs on Tancred.