In the midst of the horror of the first World War, a stranger falls from nowhere into the mud and death of the Flanders battlefield--bruised, babbling, and stark naked...with a remarkable story to tell.
Welcome to the second round of The Great Game--the timeless diversion of human gods, created to relieve the tedium of immortality. A ruthless contest of treachery, magic, betrayal and manipulation--a melange of created histories, abused powers and obliterated lives--it weaves through the centuries and across the dimensions, ensnaring warriors, wastrels, kings and commoners in its lethal web.
After three unaccounted years, Edward Exeter, wrongly accused murderer and fugitive from law, has reappeared on this Earth--bearing scars and secrets from a place he calls Nextdoor. He has crossed over from a war of spears and arrows to do service in one of heavy artillery and poison gas. But powerful forces on both sides of a guarded mystical border have other plans for the young patriot. And there are ancient prophecies to be fulfilled.
For, in a very different realm of .godly intrigues, Exeter is Liberator--the one who is to "bring death to Death." It is a prophecy Edward wants no part of--as, in the company of loyal comrades, he races across a bomb-ravaged Britain, fleeing murderous pursuers from two separate worlds.
But there is no escaping his Destiny--as tormenting memories of darkest betrayal and miraculous triumph crowd Exeter's thoughts and propel him onward. For there are obligations to the past and to the future alike that must be met if civilizations are to survive. And, ultimately, it is the dead who will rouse D'ward Liberator to new action--as it has been foretold.
