Before the rise to dominance of Western Europe, there was a pivotal time in history when the world was consumed by the epic struggle between the Islamic Empire of the Ottomans and the Christian Kingdoms of Eastern Europe. Two civilizations and two very different ways of life confronted each other with the fate of mankind yet to be decided. THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD OF THE REALM debuts MERCHANTS OF TIME A seven-novel tale of mystery and suspenseful adventure, during an epoch marked by turbulence and mayhem. The year is 1448. Transylvania and Wallachia, the sword and the shield of the Kingdom of Hungary, are invaded by an immense army under the banner of Sultan Murad II, the man who calls himself The Shadow of Allah upon the World. Lorian Comosicus, the heir to a mysterious Draconic ring, and his twelve-year-old brother, Silvan, are sent across the border mountains to the fortress of Roter Turm with a secret message from the conspirators who killed Vlad Dracul of Wallachia for pledging allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. Lost in the vast forests of Transylvania, they meet Sir Gregor Dahr Altair, an imperial knight who just escaped from Roter Turm before the Ottomans destroyed it. Gregor is an Excubitor, a powerful secretive fraternity who could change the outcome of the war. He leads Lorian and Silvan ahead of the tempest to the great trading city of Hermannstadt before it is surrounded and destroyed by the Sultan's army.