Crete, 1492. After a sojourn of more than a year on the Venetian-controlled island, Skiouros has learned the art of the sword, the languages of both his peers and his enemies, and everything he believes he needs to know in order to begin his great quest: to seek the death of the one remaining conspirator in the plot responsible for his brother's death. Circumstances collide, pushing the former thief to finally set forth on his journey, with the aid of his friends Parmenio and Nicolo. Meanwhile, far across the Mediterranean, a small fleet of Turkish galleys is engaged in a last desperate attempt to preserve Islamic influence in the Iberian Peninsula. While the great naval commander Kemal Reis battles to save a lost people, his subordinate burns to sack, destroy and murder every hint of Christian life in the west. When the caravel 'Isabella', replete with the three companions and a young Italian nobleman, crosses paths with the violent Ottoman would-be pirate, things turn sour and Skiouros finds himself driven ever further from his end goal, a series of calamities bringing him to face some harsh and unsettling personal truths. Skiouros is about to be tested to the limits of his endurance, with his very life at stake, for Hassan 'the butcher' prowls the seas...