• Nominated for the Silver Birch Award 2000
• Shortlisted for the Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award 2001

The Third Book of the Crusades

A lowly apprentice scribe, an orphan crippled by a club foot, 15-year-old Matthew thought he knew what life had in store for him: endless servitude. Of what consequence was it to him that King Richard the Lionheart of England and King Philip of France were soon to meet in his home city of Messina? What role could he possibly play in the Crusade to liberate the Holy City of Jerusalem from the Saracens?

But Matthew is drawn into the bloody and divisive war. His quick wits save a queen from imprisonment and a young Muslim girl from drowning at sea. And King Richard himself soon needs a scribe.

The first two books in this Crusades trilogy are the award-winning There Will be Wolves and Shadows on a Sword.

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 1999.
ISBN 0-00-648116-7