Round One of The Great Game.
The Great Game of the Gods has gone on since time immemorial - its dangerous moves and methods crossing from world to world, from dimension to dimension, through hidden portals located in fields and forests and places of serious magic. A deadly contest of skill and manipulations, it ruthlessly creates wizards and destroys human pawns...and transforms men, women and children into something different - something more.
In the summer of 1914, in a world poised on the brink of madness, young Edward Exeter awakens in a British hospital bed, accused of a terrible, impossible murder - and with no memory of recent events.
In another world a troupe of penniless actors stands by helplessly as its youngest member, Eleal Singer, is taken prisoner by the loyal minions of a corrupt and vengeful goddess. For an elaborate ancient prophecy has split the realm's ruling Deities into warring factions - a prophecy that mentions the captive crippled child...and a young man from another land.