The hero of the multi-volume novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte - Captain Diego Alatriste, a mercenary soldier, an intrepid adventurer, a poet of cloak and sword - finds himself in the very heart of an ominous conspiracy, makes an enemy for life and emerges with honor from deadly altercations, and his faithful Inigo Balboa's companion meets with a mysterious stranger. So, 17th century, Spain. The adventure is just beginning... A new classic of world adventure literature - for the first time in Russian.