Rome is in peril... The old order is changing. Centurion Aurelius Castus has been summoned back from Britain to find himself caught up in a treasonous conspiracy threatening to bring down the Emperor Constantine. Rewarded for saving the emperor's life, Castus is promoted to the elite imperial bodyguard: the swords around the throne. But he soon discovers the court to be as dangerous as the battlefield.
Millions of years ago, the Ice Warriors fled to Deimos to sit out the death throes of their home planet, and it is now a popular tourist attraction. But it seems that the Ice Warriors are far from extinct...