While seeking to quell a ship-to-ship battle on the Barbary Coast, Solomon Kane kills Paolo Laurenti, a civilian passenger. With his final breath, Laurenti extracts a promise from the Puritan, offering forgiveness in exchange for delivering a mysterious package to Venice.
In the African Kingdom of Ndongo, an attack that leaves eight tribesmen and a sailor dead leads to a chilling discovery near Father Goncallo's Jesuit ministry. Hidden in the tall grasses is the twisted, deformed skeleton of a Serpent Man, a creature of whispered legend.
After thwarting an attempt on his life by assassins eager for Laurenti's parcel, Kane arrives at the Venetian home of scholar Abramo Bensaid and his daughter Diamanta. Yet as he crosses the Bensaid threshold, a grim certainty settles over him - this is no simple errand. Someone is determined to see Kane's promise unkept...
