The crusade is over, and relative peace has returned to the Holy Land, yet the magic and afflictions that permeate it haven’t gone away. When Gauthier of Flanders, now a wandering knight, stops in a caravanserai and gives water to a Christian woman prisoner of the Order of Assassins, he has no idea what evil is about to be unleashed upon the world … nor that he will once again have to stand against a deadly demon.