Lord of Emperors

by Guy Gavriel Kay Book 2 in the Sarantine Mosaic series.

First published 2000

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Crispin has become the imperial mosaicist, working high inside Valerius II’s sanctuary while the politics of Sarantium tighten around him. His loyalties now involve the emperor and Empress Alixana, the exiled western queen Gisel, charioteers, soldiers and the people he has gathered into his household. The arrival of Rustem, a physician from Bassania sent on a diplomatic mission that is also an act of espionage, adds another outsider to a court where professional ability can become a source of both favour and danger.

Valerius prepares to reconquer the western lands from which Crispin came, turning imperial restoration into a threat to the people he left behind. Factional violence, succession fears and unexplained fires expose the fragility beneath the capital’s splendour, while Crispin must finish an artwork intended to proclaim eternal power. The conclusion of the Sarantine Mosaic draws on Justinian’s wars and court to ask what art, loyalty and love can preserve when rulers transform private lives into instruments of policy.