Cross and Crescent
Once Byzantium was the meeting place of East and West, the Holy City where subtle princes, rich merchants, and scheming priests built great monuments to the glory of God and their own ambition. But now, after centuries of power, the Imperial throne is in danger. The forces of Islam have attacked the Empire's borders from the East: they have captured Jerusalem, Christianity's holiest city, and all seems lost. From the West have come Jerusalem's saviors - the armies of Franks, Normans, and other Christians - who are willing to die to reclaim Jerusalem for Christ's faithful. For the people who stand in the midst of this momentous upheaval, the arrival of the Crusaders sounds as a warning klaxon. For Leo Ducas, a man who was once a hairsbreadth away from assuming the Imperial throne but who has rejected that life, they represent hope and danger in equal measure. For his wife, Asherah, the beautiful and haunting Jewess who saved Leo's life so long ago, the barbarians are nothing but the murderers of her people. And for Binah, their bewitching daughter, a woman who holds the world's power in her grasp, they are but pawns in her own mysterious game. They will all play a dangerous game to save their homeland, from infidel and barbarian Christian both...and the things done in their various gods' names may condemn an entire generation.
Cross and Crescent
Once Byzantium was the meeting place of East and West, the Holy City where subtle princes, rich merchants, and scheming priests built great monuments to the glory of God and their own ambition. But now, after centuries of power, the Imperial throne is in danger. The forces of Islam have attacked the Empire's borders from the East: they have captured Jerusalem, Christianity's holiest city, and all seems lost. From the West have come Jerusalem's saviors - the armies of Franks, Normans, and other Christians - who are willing to die to reclaim Jerusalem for Christ's faithful. For the people who stand in the midst of this momentous upheaval, the arrival of the Crusaders sounds as a warning klaxon. For Leo Ducas, a man who was once a hairsbreadth away from assuming the Imperial throne but who has rejected that life, they represent hope and danger in equal measure. For his wife, Asherah, the beautiful and haunting Jewess who saved Leo's life so long ago, the barbarians are nothing but the murderers of her people. And for Binah, their bewitching daughter, a woman who holds the world's power in her grasp, they are but pawns in her own mysterious game. They will all play a dangerous game to save their homeland, from infidel and barbarian Christian both...and the things done in their various gods' names may condemn an entire generation.
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Once Byzantium was the meeting place of East and West, the Holy City where subtle princes, rich merchants, and scheming priests built great monuments to the glory of God and their own ambition. But now, after centuries of power, the Imperial throne is in danger. The forces of Islam have attacked the Empire's borders from the East: they have captured Jerusalem, Christianity's holiest city, and all seems lost. From the West have come Jerusalem's saviors - the armies of Franks, Normans, and other Christians - who are willing to die to reclaim Jerusalem for Christ's faithful. For the people who stand in the midst of this momentous upheaval, the arrival of the Crusaders sounds as a warning klaxon. For Leo Ducas, a man who was once a hairsbreadth away from assuming the Imperial throne but who has rejected that life, they represent hope and danger in equal measure. For his wife, Asherah, the beautiful and haunting Jewess who saved Leo's life so long ago, the barbarians are nothing but the murderers of her people. And for Binah, their bewitching daughter, a woman who holds the world's power in her grasp, they are but pawns in her own mysterious game. They will all play a dangerous game to save their homeland, from infidel and barbarian Christian both...and the things done in their various gods' names may condemn an entire generation.
