Diego Alatriste is a swordsman in a dangerous and corrupt 17th Century Spain, who, after being wounded in battle during the Thirty Years' War, is forced to retire from the army. Now he lives a relatively tame, though hardly quiet, life of a swordsman-for-hire in Madrid. When he is hired by the Holy Inquisition to kill two mysterious travelers, guests of the British ambassador, he knows he is in... (read more)