Synopsis
In 17th century Imperial Spain, Diego Alatriste, a brave soldier at the service of his king, is fighting in a war in the cold lands of Flanders. In an ambush laid by the Dutch, Balboa, his friend and comrade-inarms, falls mortally wounded. His dying friend whispers a final wish and Alatriste promises to fulfil it: he will take care of his son, Iñigo, and keep him from becoming a soldier. Alatriste returns to Madrid to find the empire in decline. The very Spain in which Quevedo and Góngora compose their verses, Velazquez paints his canvases and Lope de Vega stages his plays, is crumbling before the impassivity of its King. The court of Philip IV, riddled with intrigues and corruption, dances to the tune of the Count-Duke Olivares, with the support of the Holy Inquisition. Alatriste himself, who keeps body and soul together as a hired assassin, becomes involved in one of these intrigues when he is hired along with another mercenary, the Italian Gualterio Malatesta, to kill two mysterious characters who are travelling incognito to Madrid.Alatriste's fate is sealed when, sensing something shady in this sinister commission, decides to spare the lives of the two foreigners and oppose Malatesta who is determined to finish the job. That night he wins himself an enemy for life. When Alatriste discovers who it is whose life he has saved, he realises that he will have to face forces too powerful to be beaten with the sword. But he is not on his own; the beautiful Maria de Castro, his inseparable comrades in the field of battle and, above all, Iñigo, who is by now almost a son to him, will be the Captain's unconditional support and key characters in this great adventure story.
