"Spanish alliances and heretic blood and legends of the devil's brood." Paris, February, 1646. Reports come from England and the Royalist camp that dismay the exiled English court, while one man is profiting from both loss and victory. Luc Corvay, the spy master of France, holds lives and reputations in his power, and cares for nothing but his own influence. In an attempt to extend it, he sends Peter Scudamore and Guyon de Chesnay, his unwilling agents, to bring the Languedoc and its hidden allegiance with Spain into open disrepute. But Peter and Guyon's loyalty does not belong to Corvay, and their true goals are the precise opposite to Corvay's intent. They seek the Languedoc's acquittal from the crimes Corvay seeks to prove it guilty of, and their own salvation. And the price of it will prove to be greater than they or Corvay could have imagined.