The thousand-year Empire of Sammos, the Holy Mother of Cities, is dying. The Krahl, sublime ruler of the pagan Odrum, has encircled its once-glittering capital, Sammkos, on both land and sea and is ready to deliver the last, killing blow. And now it seems that Fate has chosen a wounded, betrayed, fearful man to gather what scant hope remains in the beleaguered City. For Agriabus, Prefect of the Purple, has suffered the unendurable betrayal of his own son, who has wounded him in an impetuous duel before fleeing to the Krahl, must confront an increasingly mad Lord Engineer who wants to find salvation only in ancient, dark arts, and try to steel an Emperor who can only abase himself within the Shrine of Sammos, surrounded by flickering shadows, and past failures. And time is running out.