Tiberias Claudius Fatalis and Ming the Assassin were hoping for an easy assignment from Emperor Domitian-deal with a group of pesky pirates that were interfering with Rome's purple dye trade and deal with some equally pesky Dacians causing problems for colonies along the Euxine Sea. Sounded simple enough but Tiberias and Ming both know that an assignment is never 'simple'. This assignment also involves tales of mysterious 'silver birds' and women warriors of the grasslands; the mythical Amazons now lost to Roman history. Perhaps a not quite so simple assignment but pirates and pesky warriors they've dealt with before. But there's also something much more sinister lurking among the Euxine colonies - the 'Moroi'. Blood drinkers who've been preying on the Euxine colonists and who've seem to have formed an unnerving alliance with the Dacians. And then things get even more complicated when it appears that at least one of the Moroi is following Ming and Tiberias...