Excellent alt-historical-epic-fantasy sort of thing, set in a Renaiisance milieu of competing city-states a bit like Florence, Milan, Venive, Rome and the rest of them, where banking families and religious leaders and mercenary captains play dangerous power-games, going to war every summer in an intricate series of maneuvres dictated by cunning strategy, alliances, opportunism and greed. This is the story of two mercenaries, powerful enough to have their own cities, sworn enemies, as told by a young man drawn, as much by chance as by anything else, into their circle of schemes and military campaigns. Character-driven, soaked in rich heady atmosphere of splendour and danger, it's an absolutely riveting and enjoyable read.