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It is 1289. Kubilai, grandson of the fearsome Mongol leader Genghis Kahn whose seemingly unstoppable army so recently brought Christendom to the brink of destruction, now rules the largest empire the world has ever known.
A man of driving ambition, the Venetian merchant Vincente Montefoschi prepares to lead a caravan on the perilous journey from Lesser Armenia to Peking, capital of the great Kahn of Kahn's empire. Spurred by hopes of Kubilai's conversion to Christianity, the Armenian King Hethum II lends his patronage to Montefoschi's mission, sending with him to China a supremely gifted illuminator to win the Mongol Emperor to the True Faith.
In Daniel Arsand's The Land of Darkness, the journey east is one of extremes: extremes of climate, of terrain and of passion. Individual quests - for glory pleasure, love and domination - give rise to suspicion and hostility among the travellers. As the caravan crosses land rumoured to be governed by spirits, reality yields to myth and illusion and the main characters are forced to confront their own demons or be consumed by their passions.
