Crusader's Torch: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Book II of Atta Olivia Clemens. In the year 1189 AD, battle rages on the islands of Crete and Cyprus; Saladin sits in Jerusalem, threatening Antioch and Tyre alike; Richard Couer de Lion rules England and France; and the Pope talks of preaching a new Crusade. Olivia lives in Tyre, but dares not face its occupation by Islamic forces. She is determined to return to the city of her birth..and death: Rome, the Eternal. Accompanied only by young Valence Rainaut, a Knight Hospitaler who much against his will has fallen in love with her, she makes her desperate way by land and sea through a world ruled by Death..and by men whose bloodlust runs stronger than her own. Cover art by San Julian.