Dray Prescot begins an entirely new phase of his adventures on Kregen, that magnificent and terrible world four hundred light years from Earth. Reared in the harsh conditions of Nelson's Navy, Dray Prescot failed to find success on Earth but has succeeded in winning fortune on Kregen. He is called the Emperor of Emperors, the Emperor of Paz, but he himself regards these titles as meaningless. Paz is a vast grouping of continents and islands and is inhabited by innumerable races and nations, so why should they band together under Prescot? The Star Lords themselves have chosen him for this heavy task. In this, the first book of the Balintol cycle, the Star Lords have dispatched Dray Prescot to the town of Amintin in the continent of Balintol. Under the streaming mingled lights of the Suns of Scorpio, Dray Prescot sets forth on new adventures in the subcontinent of Balintol. All hell was due to break out in the country of Tolindrin, and the city of Oxonium, as the capital, was likely to receive more than its fair share. Dray Prescot is in the middle of it, and strangeness unlike any that he has previously encountered awaits him... Dray Prescot's task of uniting the disparate countries so that all Paz can defend itself against the predatory, fish-headed Shanks from the other side of the world is complicated. And the megalomaniac desires of certain princes and nobles who are determined to win the crown of Tolindrin for themselves, and who are willing to destroy anyone who gets in their way, isn't helping. They have hired mercenary armies and allied themselves with the traditional enemies of the country. Prescot must travel to Prebaya, the capital of Caneldrin, and use all his strengths and all his scheming and tricks to achieve his goal with as little bloodshed as possible...