4th May 1453 ...
The young heir to the Byzantine throne is abducted from the Palace of Vlachernae in Constantinople, only weeks before Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror, captures the city and puts an end to the Byzantine Empire.
550 years later ...
Elli Symitzis, head of the Valchern Corporation and matriarch of the Symitzis clan, begins to be tormented by a recurrent nightmare. It is a message from the ancient past, but she dismisses it as a bad dream.
The glimpse of a curious pendant during a chance meeting between Elli Symitzis and her son, Aristo, and future daughter-in-law, Katerina, sets in motion a series of events that test family loyalties and challenge Elli’s authority within the family and the Valchern Corporation and put everyone involved in grave danger.
Elli is shaken out of her normal life to “take up the sword” and settle, once and for all, the ancient enmity between the Order of Vlachernae, of which she’s the leader, and their sworn enemies, the Ruinands.
Giorgos Markantaskis is leading an archaeological expedition in Cappadocia, in Turkey, when he makes a discovery that eerily echoes Elli’s nightmare and throws him into the middle of the clash between the Order of Vlachernae and the Ruinands.
To complicate matters, someone from Elli’s past, and once important in her life, reappears and demands a seat at the family table. Old family disputes, long simmering beneath the surface, erupt and come to a head.
A horrifying episode from Elli’s childhood that left its indelible mark on her life comes back to haunt her. What she discovers about her family shocks her to the core and challenges divisions between good and evil.
The race to solve the mystery of the abduction and the search for the lost tomb of the last Byzantine Emperor, Konstantinos XI Palaiologos, becomes the modern battleground where the rivalry between the Order of Vlachernae and the Ruinands is played out.
The brutal race for the tomb switches between Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, New York, Sydney and Alexandria.
The stakes are high. There is a rumour that there is something terribly powerful sealed inside the tomb. Who will get there first? But, more importantly, who will get the spoils? And will the tragedies that will ensue justify the single-minded and ruthless pursuit of the lost tomb, the fate of the young heir and victory in the long-running war between two ancient secret Orders?
advertisement