Marco Polo hated his father with a bitterness that was unquenchable. For Niccolo had branded him falsely as another man's son. Marco knew that the only way he could get retribution was to ride a star more triumphant than his father's. So with money gained by selling the woman he loved into slavery, he bought his way into his father's caravan -- bound for Cathay and the court of Kublai Khan, the most powerful monarch in history. But through every weary mile of the four-year trek across a continent, he longed for the love he had betrayed, and dreamed of the moment he might revenge himself on his father. And he knew he would have both love and vengeance -- even if he had to kill to get them!