The Herdsmen of Ida are greatly diminished in number, and though they still inhabit the mountain in whose shadow lies the ruins of Troy they are without the sacred purpose which once defined them. Weak-eyed Hero, the beloved daughter of Agelaus who was slain by the Trojans as a traitor, sees something in the smoke of her sacrificial pyre.
As a result of her vision, Hero urges her brothers and the remaining Herdsman of Ida into a treacherous expedition to save the refugees of Troy, who are seeking a new homeland under the leadership of Aeneas. Aeneas's deepening conviction that he is the son of a goddess has dangerous and unsettling consequences, as our heroes navigate the perils of not only the journey but whims of their self-declared king.
As empires fall and are founded anew, the Herdsmen of Ida join the refugees of Troy in search of a vague destiny promised by fickle gods. Amidst disaster, monsters, heresy and war they risk not only their lives, but their hearts, to twist the treacherous threads of fate and deny the desperate demands of blood.
