A disgraced outcast samurai living in early seventeenth-century Spain, Kitazume is contemplating ritual suicide when a divine force (of a sort) intervenes: Luis, a mischievous Jesuit priest and Kitazume’s longtime friend. At Luis’s insistence, the samurai agrees to help smuggle a Manchu princess to Mexico. But little does he know that he’s really been dragged into an epic struggle for power.Several forces have their malicious sights set on the New World’s rich silver mines: an insurgent Spanish duke, political Chinese interests, and the escaped African slaves known as the cimarrónes. And working in secret among them is a mysterious, long-lost order that has its own plans for the precious metal.As politics and greed collide, Kitazume must call upon his deadly skills once more. But he’s not just fighting to save his friends—he’s fighting for the redemption he so desperately craves.