J.K. Swift

The only home Foulques has ever known has been razed by the Mamluks. Only by the grace of God does he and a handful of knights manage to escape to Cyprus. There, Foulques learns that Najya has been taken captive by none other than Badru Hashim and is enroute to the slave markets of North Africa.

They have defeated their Muslim enemies, crushed the unstoppable Mongol horde, and now the Mamluks turn their full attention to the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. Only the port city of Acre remains in the hands of the Crusaders.

At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John....

A small force of peasants from the forest regions surrounding Lake Lucerne, rise up against their Austrian overlords in the 14th century....

Brother Foulques de Villaret just wants to stay in Acre and perform his sworn duties. Instead, the young Hospitaller Knight of Saint John must undertake a dangerous journey....