Ziren is an alien slave, a prince of the defeated Ringevrah, who swaps a brutal life, labouring in the mines, for a battlefield on a primitive, blue planet in an unknown universe. The stone he stumbles upon transports him to a universe in which his enemies' superior firepower and mastery of advanced technology guarantees another victory and the objects of ancient power their commander craves... Dorcha is just a boy until the White Lady transforms him, giving him magical gifts of strength, speech, a wand and bracelets of power, and laying upon him a heavy burden he had never asked to receive. His quest takes him north, south, east and west, through thick forests and burning deserts, above and below the earth, to strange lands with stranger customs, where holy men and women, Roman, Greek, and barbarian, offer him advice he feels duty bound to take. His only companions are the Red Shadow outlaws, Celts and Germans led by a scar-faced Scythian, who believe that Dorcha, the gold-wearing stranger from the western edge of the world, has been sent to bring them plunder and wealth...