The vast and deadly conflict between Alexander the Great's former generals as they battle for control of his empire has reached a tense stalemate. Lysimachos, Satrap of Thrace; Cassander, King of Macedon' Ptolemy of Egypt; Antigonus, Lord of Asia, Seleucus, Lord of Babylon - none seems able to strike the decisive blow. Even Stratokles, the wily Athenian who always seems to see two moves ahead, has found himself unexpectedly betrayed. With his life - and the fate of the city he serves - in the balance, it is time to throw a new piece onto the board. For hidden in the remote mountains of Hyrkania is a young man who could change everything: Herakles, the son of Alexander. Whoever aspires to Alexander's mantle must now control his one legitimate heir - or destroy him - and the giant chess game played across the known world from Athens to Persepolis is set for its final, bloody moves. And as the rival armies converge on the village of Ipsus, twin monarchs Satyrus and Melita know that they too must gamble their own lives and the survival of their Black Sea kingdom on the outcome...