Book excerpt: Two old gods play chess to decide the fate of the galaxy. A hapless pawn is cast down upon the Earth. Mikha'il awakens, mortally wounded, on his crashed ship. He's saved by a young woman with unusual abilities. With no memory of his past and his ship destroyed, he has no choice but to integrate into her village. In stone-aged Mesopotamia, everyone must work or starve, but the only skill he possesses is an uncanny ability to kill.Ninsianna's people have prophecies of a time when a winged champion, a Sword of the Gods, will defend their people against an Evil One. Mikha'il insists he's no demi-god, but the dark premonitions sent to her by She-who-is say otherwise! Unbeknownst to them, Earth is about to become ground zero in a war between two ancient adversaries. The Emperors' armies are a dying race ... and humans hold the key to their survival.As love blossoms, the mysterious kidnappings of young women forces Mikha'il to choose between Ninsianna and his duty to complete a mission he can't quite recall. As fault lines open in the heavens, Mikha'il must teach his adopted people to raise armies from the dust to fight back against an enemy who remains unseen.