A grizzled veteran of scores of battles, KEVAH the janissary is summoned out of retirement by SHAH MURAD of the Kingdom of Sirm, who fears the royal capital Kostany will soon be besieged by an army of paladins from the rival Holy Imperium of Crucis. To bolster the city’s defenses, Kevah trains a militia and begrudgingly accepts his spirited adopted daughter MELODI as the first enlistee. Ever since his wife LUNARA disappeared ten years ago, his daughter has remained the one most precious to him.
Meanwhile, the enemy army led by a zealot named MICAH prepares to siege Kostany, which the Ethosian faith covet as the holy city where their god the ARCHANGEL descended. Micah has hated the Sirmians ever since Sirmian raiders kidnapped his daughter fifteen years ago, and he has not seen her since. A sorceress named ASCHERE guides Micah and his army through Labyrinthos, a mystical, magical tunnel by which one can travel between distant lands in a few hours, and so they invade the city weeks earlier than anticipated.
A stunned Kevah leads the defense, but the fast-firing guns of the invaders — devised with the help of an ingenious Silklander engineer named JAUZ — prove unstoppable. Micah slaughters the Shah’s house, slits Melodi’s throat, and throws Kevah off the sea walls.
The daughter of the Shah, a zabadar horse-warrior named SADIE, seeks allies to retake the city. She enlists Kevah, who just like her, is burning for revenge. Together they travel to the new Sirmian capital of Lyskar to regroup with Sadie’s brother, who has been declared the new shah. But the true power is with GRAND VIZIER EBRA, who fears Sadie’s claim to the throne and imprisons her.
An outraged Kevah frees Sadie with the help of a disgruntled, though enigmatic former (or perhaps current) spymaster of Micah’s named AICARD, and a sorcerer named MAGUS VAYA, who has the power to command the jinn that control the wind. Ebra declares Kevah and Sadie outlaws. They must now watch their back as well as front.
Near Kostany, zabadar warriors loyal to the Shah have scorched the farmland, so Micah leads his army to fight them. During the battle, Micah is injured and his arm is amputated. The fever brought on by his injuries leaves him paralyzed, and his lieutenants scheme to take over. To shore up his power, Micah forces the imperator’s daughter, a faithful young girl named CELENE, to marry him. But because Micah’s injuries are so terrible, this ploy proves fruitless.
In the darkest part of the night, an ancient jinn named AHRIYYA offers to heal Micah and grant him a destructive gunmetal hand to replace the one he lost, in exchange for his seed. Despite the sin involved, Micah copulates with Ahriyya. Reinvigorated, he and Aschere summon a fireball from the heavens to burn the traitors who tried to take over while he was bedridden.
Aschere offers him even more destructive powers, but to gain them he must abandon his faith in the Archangel and embrace the primordial creator god, whom she calls HAWWA — THE DREAMER. This is a step too far for Micah, who clings to the faith of his birth and raising. As punishment, the Dreamer strips his powers and resurrects the hated IMPERATOR HERACLIUS. Seeing this resurrection as a miracle, Micah’s disloyal army flock to Heraclius, who orders Micah to kneel. Micah refuses to submit and Heraclius throws him in the dungeon.
Meanwhile, a crazed sorceress named MAGUS AGNEYA, who has the power to command jinn that control fire, attacks Kevah and Magus Vaya. Agneya kills Vaya, but Kevah manages to kill Agneya. By doing so, Kevah gains both their masks — which gives him the ability to command the jinn of the Jann and Efreet tribes — who control wind and fire respectively — though he doesn’t know how to use these powers yet. The blessings of the masks return Kevah to a youthful appearance, as if he were twenty years old again, and stops him from aging. He also gains the ability to see unseen creatures, such as jinn and angels.
Kevah and Sadie journey to the coast to entreat with an admiral named REDBEARD who has a large army. But Grand Vizier Ebra lies in wait and attacks with a force of horsemen, led by a gholam general named Kichak from the neighboring Kingdom of Alanya. Unbowed, Kevah fights them head on and upon routing them plunders many guns and horses. At the same time, Sadie convinces Redbeard to join them by offering her hand in marriage.
Bolstered by allies and fresh supplies, Kevah and Sadie march toward Kostany. Kevah gains an unlikely ally in the form of a jinn named KINN, who helps Kevah capture Celene, the imperator’s daughter and girl Micah forced into marriage, to hold as ransom.
Kevah tries to convince the Crucian Imperator, a man named JOSIAS, to help him by offering to return his daughter. But this ploy fails because the newly resurrected Imperator Heraclius has already taken over. Heraclius lures Kevah toward the walls of Kostany and captures him, imprisoning him in the cell next to Micah.
Heraclius wins the battle and pursues Sadie’s retreating allies deep into the plains. With their backs at the impassible Syr Darya River, Sadie and the Sirmian army are forced to make a last stand. Heraclius captures her and begins stoning her to death for spectacle.
All hope is lost, until Sadie’s old enemy Grand Vizier Ebra flanks Heraclius’ overextended lines. With the help of CROWN PRINCE KYARS and tens of thousands of gholam slave soldiers from the Kingdom of Alanya, they defeat the Crucian army. Shah Murad — now freed — beheads Heraclius for harming his daughter, while Sadie remains near death from the stoning.
Back in Kostany, Aschere visits Kevah and Micah in the dungeon. Kevah is shocked when he sets eyes on his wife who disappeared ten years ago, the woman he knew as Lunara, but who has now become Aschere. She claims that her love for Kevah was meaningless and beckons him to serve the Dreamer, but Kevah bitterly refuses. Aschere then leaves and returns to Labyrinthos. Micah also learns that Melodi, Kevah’s adopted daughter whom he killed the day he invaded Kostany, was his in fact his daughter who was kidnapped fifteen years ago.
Kevah and Micah escape from their jail cells with the help of Aicard. An enraged Kevah finally gets the chance to avenge his adopted daughter. He stabs Micah in the kidney, but before he can slit his throat, Ahriyya whisks Micah away into Labyrinthos, heals him, and grants him the power to use his gunmetal hand back — apparently because Micah is the father of the child in her womb.
Though the victorious Sirmian army reclaims Kostany, Sadie succumbs to her injuries. Kevah realizes he loved Sadie and rages at her demise. Knowing that the Dreamer can bring back the dead, he enters Labyrinthos to pursue Aschere, but instead runs into Micah. In a climactic battle of guns versus magic, Kevah shoots Micah, but fails to finish him off. As Micah escapes out of Labyrinthos toward what he thinks is a monastery, he is shot by a young boy with green eyes, who belongs to a band of Crucian mercenaries.
Kevah finds Aschere in the bowels of Labyrinthos. She offers to have the Dreamer resurrect Sadie if he will agree to serve the darkness as the prophesied Opener — the foretold harbinger of the end of the world. Kevah will do anything to bring Sadie back and feels he has no recourse. To prove his service, Aschere orders him to destroy Kostany by summoning the Archangel out of a godly and mysterious black hole in space called THE BLOOD STAR. As the Archangel controlled by Kevah hovers over Kostany and charges a giant sword with destructive energy, Kevah realizes that Sadie would not want this. He changes his mind and stabs his wife to death. By doing so, he gains her mask and the ability to command the Marid tribe of jinn, who control ice. Part of the Archangel then explodes into thousands of gunmetal pieces, while the rest is absorbed back into the Blood Star.
The GODDESS LAT, worshipped by the Latian faith practiced in the kingdoms of Sirm, Alanya, and Kashan, is pleased that Kevah killed the apostle of the Dreamer. She offers to revive Sadie, if Kevah will agree to travel to the Holy City of Zelthuriya and serve her instead by achieving fanaa — a mystical state in which one annihilates their selfish desires. He agrees and so Lat revives Sadie, and the two enjoy a few weeks of travel and enjoyment before Kevah leaves to serve Lat.