Synopsis: The indirect approach... In northern India the Malwa have created an empire of unexampled evil. Guided or possessed by an intelligence from beyond time, with new weapons,, old treachery, and an implacable will to power, the Malwa will sweep over the whole Earth. Only three things stand between the Malwa and their plan of eternal domination... Byzantium. The Empire of Rome in the East. Compared to what the Malwa are creating, think of it as Camelot. A crystal with a vision. It brings a warning to all mankind regarding the Malwa, and a simple instruction: fight. If you lose, commit suicide. And a man - Belisarius. He is arguably the greatest commander Earth has ever known. Fortunately he above all men understands that war is not just a matter of weapons, but of the men who use them - and most especially of the man who commands those men. Threatened by imperial suspicion and Malwa conspiracies, impeded by border wars, target of spies and hired assassins, Belisarius must journey into the very heart of the Malwa empire as the first step in preventing the crystal's nightmare vision from becoming the real future of us all. And while he and the heroic band he leads are used to betting their lives, now what is at stake is Eternity. (from the back cover of the Baen Books first edition)