This rollicking saga is set in the Kingdom of Arran , in the Caucasus Mountains, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, A.D. 950. It tells the tale of two wandering adventurers and unlikely soul mates, variously plying their trades as swords for hire, horse thieves, and flimflam artists - until fortune entangles them in the myriad schemes and battles following a bloody coup in the medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars.