The Western mosaicist Crispin has arrived in the golden city of Sarantium and sets out to confront the challenges of his art high on the scaffolding of destiny—but he soon discovers that no man can withdraw from the dangerous intrigues of court and city, or forget that the presence of the half-world is always close by. To the Imperial City there also comes another voyager, Rustem of Kerakek, a physician from the east who finds that his own fate is not simply that of a healer.

In this concluding volume of the Sarantine Mosaic, Guy Gavriel Kay brilliantly merges an epic adventure with a deeply moving meditation on art and power, and the eternal human struggle to leave a legacy.