Mercy is weakness. Forgiveness is blasphemy. Sin is crime.
Agata and Father Edlin have made a new life on a colony of outcasts and fugitives far beyond the tyranny of the Union. He practices his heretical faith in freedom, without fear of prosecution, and she and her little ship supply their colony. Life is good.
And then an old friend – and sometimes enemy – arrives, with a desperate plea for help. Soon, they find themselves back in the Union, racing against time to unravel a terrible conspiracy.
A conspiracy that might blow the Union apart at the seams and ignite an intergalactic holy war in the process.
A holy war that will destroy them and any hope of a new life.