Lord Tedric of the Marshes, ex-Corpsman, revered hero of the Empire and personal friend of the Emperor, is a traitor. Fugitive from the Security Forces, Tedric and his blue-furred alien friend Ky-Shan intend to join up with the most ruthless and successful renegade in the Galaxy - the Bioman, Fra Villion. Tedric's quest brings him in contact with a strange and fascinating band of people. There's Milton Dass, a brilliant scientist who has invented the most staggering instrument of destruction the Universe has ever seen; Juvi, a prostitute seeking new excitement as a pirate; Yod, a black-planet boy hoping to revenge the death of his family; and, of course, Fra Villion himself, the Black Knight of the Iron Sphere.

The future of mankind is in the hands of the legendary Corps of One Hundred, an elite body of warriors, selected and trained for the greatest honours in the empire of man. But there is something different about Tedric, the strange Corpsman who is not of this earth. The Scientists, the guardians of peace in the universe, have chosen him to play a special role. He knows he has lived before. He has braved the terrors of primordial magic, and he knows there are greater battles to come. When a miners' revolt threatens the vital Dalkanium supplies and a dreaded Wykzl warship looms on the horizon, Tedric knows his moment of glory is at hand...

Tedric the hero had become Tedric the pirate... He looked at his strange companions: Philip Nolan, an aristocrat turned mutineer; Keller, a subman with canine ancestry; Ky-shan, a huge blue-furred alien; KT294578 Wilson, an extraordinary anarchist robot. A weird band of thieves. But Tedric intended to use his crew for something more worthwhile than piracy. He had a plan to overthrow the tyrannical Carey family, the oppressors who controlled the Universe. All the rights and wrongs of the situation were clear to Tedric...until Alyc Carey, beautiful, blind daughter of the megalomaniac Melor Carey, was taken prisoner. She seemed sympathetic to the revolutionary cause, and yet, Tedric was unsure of her... Should he see her as a hostage...or a recruit?

This is the fourth of four novels Eklund wrote in the "Tedric" series, based on a character conceived by Smith (though Eklund is not acknowledged in this book). The other novels in the series are "Lord Tedric" (1978); "Space Pirates" (1979); and "Black Knight of the Iron Sphere" (1979).