Transylvania and Wallachia, the sword and the shield of the Kingdom of Hungary, are about to be invaded by an immense army marching under the banner of Sultan Murad II, who calls himself The Shadow of Allah upon the World.

Lorian Comosicus, the heir to a legacy represented by a mysterious Draconic ring, and his twelve-year-old brother, Silvan, travel across the border mountains to the fortress of Roter Turm carrying a secret message from the conspirators who killed Vlad Dracul of Wallachia for pledging allegiance to the Ottoman Empire.

After narrowly evading capture by the Sultan’s forces, the boys lose their way in the vast forests of Transylvania where they meet Sir Gregor Dahr Altair, an imperial knight who only just escaped from Roter Turm before it was overwhelmed by the Ottomans and their new cannons.

Gregor is a powerful force within the Excubitors, a secret fraternity of warriors, financiers and merchants who could change the outcome of the war through their influential positions within the Ottoman Empire and the Christian Kingdoms. Learning Lorian’s identity and mission, he leads the brothers ahead of the tempest, rushing to reach the great trading city of Hermannstadt, the next target in the Sultan's invasion.

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The forgotten world … The forgotten conflict

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The history of the struggle between Islam and Christianity is long, but it did not reach a continuous state of conflict until the rise of the Islamic Empire of the Ottomans in 14^th century, and its western expansion. Two momentous events stand head and shoulder above the war, which raged for nearly three hundred and fifty years: the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the Conquest of Hungary in 1526.

In 15^th century, the Byzantine Empire, known to its inhabitants as the Empire of the Romans, was a thousand–year old economic, cultural, and military state established by the Roman Emperor Constantine when he moved the capital of the empire he ruled from Rome east to Constantinople. It was the cradle of civilization during the Middle Ages and home of the Orthodox Church, considered by its adherents to be the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.

The Kingdom of Hungary was the most powerful Christian kingdom in Europe, which ruled over a collection of nations from the Balkan Peninsula to the territories along the River Danube, nations loyal to the Holy Crown of Stephen I, the first king of the Hungarian Realm.

Such is the world that comes to life in the series Merchants of Time, a world consumed by a war over the very core beliefs upon which civilizations are build, a war raging for one hundred and fifty years and still with no end on sight.

 The series begins in 1448, in The Sword and the Shield of the Realm, with the newly launched campaign by Sultan Murad II to destroy the armies of the Kingdom of Hungary and hunt down his arch enemy, Johannes Hunyadi, the newly elected Regent of Hungary. The sultan’s abhorrence is rooted in the events that led to the Battle of Varna in 1444, when Vladislaus III, then the King of Hungary and Poland broke the ten-year truce only months after it was sworn on a Bible and on a copy of the Koran. Johannes Hunyadi, then the general of the Hungarian Army, demanded the insufferable insult, claiming that the Son of Ishmael cannot be trusted otherwise. The despicable treachery moved Sultan Murad II to answer to the behest of Allah to eradicate all Christian kings and turn their subjects to Islam. One by one, he swore, all Christian kingdoms shall fall to his power and he will turn them into provinces of the Ottoman Empire. 

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Why the series is called "Merchants of Time" 

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The story of the epic struggle between the Islamic Empire of the Ottomans and the Christian Kingdoms of Eastern Europe is told from the perspective of a secret fraternity, the Excubitors, a brotherhood of counselors to kings, sultans, head of churches, knights, scholars, financiers, and merchant adventurers who hold influential positions on both sides of the conflict. Understanding the grave danger in Sultan Murad’s resolve to eradicate Christianity and turn the world to Islam, they decided to intervene for the greater good of all.

The Excubitors are, perhaps, the “missing ancestors” of the Illuminati and Freemasons of the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The Excubitors do not command great armies, but possess a broader understanding of the world and a few “new inventions,” powerful knowledge in an age when most kings were unable to read and write, and books were considered treasures. Their goal is simple: buy some time, until a greater resistance can be organized in the West.

Following their exploits, it becomes clear nothing in history happened by accident, nor because it was predestined. They dedicated themselves to the principle that in the interest of all no one should be allowed to absolutely dominate all others. Thus, we learn that in the intricate tapestry of human history nothing is, as it seems.

The Merchants of Time series is an attempt to remind us that the world of today, with all its benefits and tribulations, is but a product of the historical continuum. Through war, trade, and the will to dominate, humans have created it as it is. Everything that defines our time stemmed from the fears raised by the constant state of war between the Islamic Empire of the Ottomans and the Christian Kingdoms of Europe. The rise of the Ottomans led to the demise of the last vestige of the Roman Empire and generated a shift in power from the East to the West. History records it, euphemistically, as the Byzantine-Ottoman wars, which lasted for a hundred and fifty years.

Yet very little has been written in literature about it, especially in the last forty years, and only incidentally. Now, in every threat that looms in the future, the seeds of the fruits planted back then, with the potential for the most destructive war in human history threatening our future are revealed.

A word of caution: those who are tempted to say that history repeats itself, will do well to remember that this is a truism only as long as our motivations remain the same.

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The Merchants of Time provides some answers to some of history’s most provocative questions 

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• Why Constantinople fell to the Islamic Empire of the Ottomans in 1453? Was it a conspiracy? If so, who conspired to let the greatest city since Rome and the spiritual center of Christianity be conquered by Sultan Mehmed II, an event no less momentous than the adaptation of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire?

•  Why the Kingdom of Hungary, the most powerful kingdom in the Christendom, fell to the Islamic Empire of the Ottomans after the Battle of Mohacs in 1526? Was it the proverbial “sacrificial lamb,” used by secret forces to save the West from falling under Islam?

• Who were the “missing ancestors” of the Illuminati and Freemasons, the secret societies of the 17th and 18^th century? Did the Excubitors really exist? Did they change the course of history? 

• What happened to the riches and wealth in artistic and literary treasures that vanished from Constantinople, the city described as the largest, and the most splendid in medieval Europe? 

• Why did Pope Clement V suppress the Templar Order? Was it because the Grand Master had declared his intent to form a Templar State in the East? Did the Templars hide much of their treasure, relics, and records in the lands where they intended to create a state? How did Templar Knights come to possess the Shroud of Turin? 

• How did the Islamic Empire of the Ottomans, which in the 16^th century spanned over three continents and controlled much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, dominating the shipping lanes from Gibraltar to the eastern end of the Black Sea bring about the rise of Spain, Portugal, and, in the end, England as naval powers and empires? 

• What is the historical fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity and how it shaped the history of the conflict between their leaders and followers? Will this be the greatest issue of concern for our future?

The seven-novel series MERCHANTS of TIME is divided in two parts.

The trilogy of:

 The Sword and the Shield of the Realm

ISBN 9780979957703

Released March 2008

 The Field of the Blackbirds

ISBN 9780979957710

Scheduled for release in May 2010

End of the Seventh Age

ISBN 9780979957734

Scheduled for release in May 2011

And the tetralogy of:

Crown of the Realm

The Dark Voievod

The Golden Age

Heart of Stone