In an empire on the precipice of greatness, the agents of the Way of Strangers trade secrets for coin. They serve nobody save those who have the most to lose! Yet for all their dark skills as the eyes and ears of the shadows, they are blind and fools.

 For what profit does one secret make?

It is an irony Ostorius plans to exploit. A gamble for a prize bigger than they can imagine. However, despite the friendship of a powerful ally, he discovers dominion is not so easily won, the risk more than he bargained for. Possibly unto the mortar of Rome itself.

 Even emperors cannot fight ghosts.

Meanwhile, as Rome presses ever more brutally against his people, Judah Ben-Hur slips away from Misenum to go in search of a rebel — a key to Judea and her insurgent armies. Only it will not be the key to peace that Judah expects, the turning in the lock bringing him back to another whose fate was bound to his own long ago.  

 A Grey Man who once had a name…