Istanbul,
1591 - and Sultan Murad III, the mightiest ruler in the world, has been
robbed. The Staff of Moses has been stolen from his private collection of
religious artefacts in the Topkapi
Palace - right from under
his imperial nose! The wooden Staff, held by Moses as he parted the Red Sea, is a magical symbol of power worth a king’s
ransom - and the furious Sultan wants it
back.
A small
undercover unit of hand-picked, trusted warriors is hastily assembled to track
down the thieves. They are the ‘Rüzgar’ – the ‘Wind’ – and like the wind, they
travel silently and unseen. Awa, the studious daughter of a noble family from
the Songhai Empire in West Africa, was
kidnapped and enslaved by Moroccans after the disastrous Battle of Tondibi. Awa
is a whirling and deadly force when she has a scimitar in her hand. Will, who was snatched from his home in London at the age of 5, is
now 16 and a galley slave on board a Moroccan warship. Joining the Rüzgar turns
him into a man. He and Awa become fast friends. The other comrades are Turkish,
Greek and Albanian, all led by the charismatic Bosnian Mehmed Konjic, a wise
counsellor and natural hero.
The Rüzgar’s
pursuit of a network of rogues takes them across continents and into many
perilous situations. The action is fast and furious, with dire situations
requiring a Houdini to escape from . . . set against thrilling backdrops
including deserts, oceans, dungeons, the roofs of the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul,
the canals of Venice and the court of Queen
Elizabeth I at Nonsuch Palace in Surrey.
The task to reclaim the Staff is
a mission that is (almost) impossible . . .