England, 1346: For Thomas Blackstone, the choice is easy - dance on the end of a rope for a murder he did not commit, or take up his war bow and join the king's invasion. As he fights his way across northern France, Blackstone learns the brutal lessons of war - from the terror and confusion of his first taste of combat, to the savage realities of siege warfare.

Swordsman Richard Hughes has arrived on the banks of the Grand Canal looking for a simpler life, only to be plunged—alongside Phillip de Chambray, a remarkable woman unable to show her true self—into the thick of the murkiest, most dangerous European politics, at a moment when someone is trying to destroy the opera, and Venice itself.

An only child of Anglo-French descent, young James Bretherton has known a life of privilege; well-educated and mild mannered, his path is filled with promise. But when James suddenly finds himself orphaned and penniless, his future looks decidedly bleak. It is only when Fate intervenes in the guise of two English mercenaries, that James is given hope. Embarking on a new life as a soldier, he soon becomes embroiled in the religious war between Catholics and Protestants, The Empire and the German States; the war that was known as The Thirty Years war.

In the unforgiving docklands of east London, young orphan William must do all he can to survive. Like the other ‘wharf rats', his life of petty crime is not a choice; it's a necessity. But William's misdeeds won't remain hidden for long. When the boy unknowingly steals from a murderous pirate captain, escape is his only option. He is forced to stow away and begin a life that will take him to the far side of the world; a life as a soldier of the East India Company.

Norway, AD 958. The Northern realm is once again at war. The exiled sons of Erik Bloodaxe have returned with the help of the Danes and have slain King Hakon. They now come for Hakon's heir, Jarl Trygvi. Trygvi's wife, Astrid, and young son, Olaf, flee their home with the aid of their household warriors. Pursued by the Bloodaxe brood, the family escapes east, through the dark, forested land of the Swedes and across the treacherous East Sea.