Halvar Danske, known as the Hireling, has come to Manatas to determine whether there's fraud afoot in the Feria. His master, the Al-Andalusian Calif Don Felipe, has had a letter from an old friend named Leon di Vicenza claiming part of the calif's share of the Feria's revenues is being funneled into unauthorized pockets.

It's more than an omen when Halvar stumbles on a brutally murdered man his first morning in Manatas, and the day goes downhill from there. Is the corpse really Leon di Vincenza, or is someone staging a gigantic hoax? And what does Halvar's childhood love Dani Glick have to do with it?

In this first pair of novellas, filk-artist and author Roberta Rogow introduces a world where Spain rules North America and a Danish soldier turned investigator is thrust into a place where the primitive nature of the surroundings is a sharp contrast to the sophisticated intrigue that plagues the island of Manatas.