The first book of the Khaavren Romances. Published in 1991 by Tor Books, and the first book to use the authorial voice of Paarfi of Roundwood. This book was the second to be set within the world of Dragaera that had a point of view other than Vlad Taltos's. (Brokedown Palace being the first).
The events chronicled within the book occur several hundred years before Vlad's time.
Described as a pastiche or a tribute to the style of Alexandre Dumas, the book has many parallels to The Three Musketeers. See, in particular, this list of comparisons between Paarfi and Dumas