The Twenty-Two Lions

Juan Aguinaga constitutes the sole inhabitant of an islet adjacent to Stintino, in the north of Sardinia, during the epoch of the Succession. His directives: to survey the sea from the watchtower and to frustrate potential offensives. Exiled consequent to the treachery of his superior and submerged in desperation, he discovers amidst the cartography ancient dossiers that engross his entire attention and which shall, ultimately, alter his existence. By way of testimony, a former occupant of the tower bequeaths a written account of the obscure circumstances that conducted him thither a century prior. The author is a renegade, widowed cleric unto whom the mission is entrusted to investigate the violent assassination of the then Rector of the University of Valladolid, that Valladolid of the Duke of Lerma. The homicide is identical to one perpetrated years prior within the selfsame Temple of Culture, immediately antecedent to the Great Auto-da-fé. The clues direct him to uncover the implication in both demises of an intra-university secret society: The Twenty-Two Lions. He must ascertain their identity and nature... His inquiries, intelligence, and instinct shall guide him from the University of Valladolid to the fetid bowels of high society. Nobility, aristocracy, religious orders... unto the monarch himself, intermingle within a wretched putrescence of avarice, simony, lust... and all manner of unbridled, degrading outrages... Wearied, he does not relent in his objective of unveiling the truth. Albeit it may entail encountering death, his demise, once more...