The third installment of the Black Lion Trilogy. Estienne and his brothers have to accompany a holy women and her companions to a pagan settlement to bring Christ to them. What follows is brutal in the extreme as they try to escape with their lives. I shed a few tears at this one at the horror that the group face as they are being chased by the pagans. Once again Richard Cullen has written a spectacular story which makes you feel as though you are there with them fighting to the death. We have followed Estienne Wace from a youngster bought to Wales to be raised by the Marshall. I hope this is not the last we hear of Estienne. He is like a brother to us readers and I want to know what his next adventures are going to be. With thanks to the author,Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this book.

A group of Teutonic knights are stationed on the borders of Hungary in the Carpathian mountains to protect the area from the pagan tribes. One tribe is threatened by the Mongol hordes to the East and their leader wants to convert to Christianity to get protection. He is betrayed by his priestess and the team sent to baptise is captured and destined to be sacrificed to their gods. A small group of knights including Estienne Wace decide to go on a rescue mission. This is an examply of a well-written medieval action thriller with the added bonus of being set on the borders of Christianity and featuring the Teutonic Order, a not very well-used setting. It follows all the accepted rules of its genre - lots of sword-fighting, betrayal, plausible enemies etc - and has a strong moral sense at its heart.