Author Description

The streets of 12th Century Damascus run red with the blood of the secret sect of the Assassins, foiled in their plot to join with the Knights of the Temple to overthrow the city. Commander Ibn Tariq rides out from the city to confront the army of the Crusaders, while a lone figure, shrouded in shadow, flees into the wilderness. From the army of Crusader King Baldwin, a grizzled veteran rides out to challenge the Syrians. In the hills outside the city, they meet - and encounter an ancient power that sweeps them into another world. In the land of Isgarra, General Hasif nahsk-Serag marches an army towards the ruins of a once great civilization, its people long dead or, if the legends are true, sleeping in their tombs beneath the mountains. He pursues one of his own men, who has fled with an artifact that is the symbol of his nation's might. And in that place of legends, an ancient people withers away in their underground warren, beneath a mountain where the rest of the world believes their graves to lie. At that city's heart the Mistress of the Deep Fount, touched by a magic she scarcely understands, calls the General's man to her. And with him, an ancient weapon that is more than a weapon, that has the power to summon monstrous beings it banished long ago. With him he brings the Visle, and two worlds will soon feel its power.