1610: Hermetic magic is about to transform into science - this is the year everything could change. Robert Fludd, English physician and astrologer uses Jon Dee's method of foretelling the future. It appears to work but he doesn't like the centuries he's predicting. Someone will have to change the future. Rochefort, duellist, down-at-heel aristocrat and spy for the Duc de Sully, France's powerful finance minister, has troubles of his own - Dariole, a young man of his acquaintance who is lust walking on two legs and as irresponsible as an alley-cat. The last thing he needs is a mad English astrologer in his life. Continental Europe is briefly at peace - but Henry IV is planning to invade the German principalities. Five years earlier, in England, conspirators almost succeeded in blowing up King James and his Parliament. The seeds of the English Civil War and the Thirty Years' War are being sown... For a man of no conscience, Rochefort is about to be caught between loyalty, love and blackmail - between kings, queens, politicians and Rosicrucians - and all this before he encounters the woman he has, unknowingly, crossed land and sea to meet. Robert Fludd is pulling the strings... And Rochefort does not take kindly to being someone's puppet. Cover art by Les Edwards.