Category: Fantasy Publisher: Createspace
ISBN-10: 145364217X
Type: Fiction
Pages: 304
Copyright: July 10, 2010
ISBN-13: 9781453642177
The Grand Master of the Red Cross of Gold fails miserably in his attempt to 'set things right' by indulging in a bit of time travel. He is saved from a terrible fate by his beloved Meredith, but her magick awakens an even greater power in the Abyss that would have been better left sleeping. The Chevalier du Morte returns home defeated, but his troubles increase disproportionately when he returns with 'baggage'. Things begin to fall apart between Mark and Meredith just when things should have been looking up and the Knight of the Golden Eagle finds himself again thrown into the mix when Meredith pushes both Simon of Grenoble and Mark Ramsay out of her life perhaps forever.
The Skull of Sidon is the fourteenth book in the Assassin Chronicles.
History tells us that the Knights Templar were disbanded on Friday the 13th of October 1307 when the King of France conspired with the Pope to have them rounded up, arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges of heresy, blasphemy and other crimes. But the King was not quite successful. Some of them escaped. Some of them thrived and some have lived a long, long time. In fact, an entire sub-order called the Red Cross of Gold is still operating in the twenty-first century behind the scenes, waiting for Armageddon and the return of Christ when they plan to fight the Anti-Christ at his side.
Mark Andrew Ramsay, the Chevalier du Morte, Knight of Death is one of twelve members of the semi-immortal members of the ruling council of the Order of the Red Cross of Gold. He is a reclusive Scot with a grumpy personality who spends most of his time in the lowlands of Scotland where he works as alchemist, assassin and Knight of Death for the Order. He provides them the financial means to support their global operations, he makes sure that the members of the Order stay in line and he releases the souls of his semi-immortal Brothers when the need arises.
Excerpt
Carlisle Corrigan dragged Merry up the beach and flung her onto the sand. She coughed and sputtered and sat up, wiping the sand and water from her face.
“Why did you do that?” She shouted at him as he sat down and began to pull off his boots.
“You were drowning,” he told her incredulously. “Why’d you jump over if you can’t swim? What are you trying to do, kill yourself?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact. Yes!” She answered angrily and muttered to herself as she pulled off her sneakers and then her socks. “Isn’t that what you all want? Don’t you want me dead? Isn’t that why you came here? To kill me?”
“No, that was not my intention at all,” Carlisle denied the accusation and shook his wet curls. He looked down at the cuts and bruises in his palms and winced at the pain that saving her had caused him… all unappreciated. “I came here to find out what Mark Ramsay is up to. Why he would bring a woman here? I didn’t come to kill anyone.”
“Then why did you kill him?” She asked and then narrowed her eyes. She had just been saved from suicide by a murderer. “Christopher told me what you did to him on the roof. What has he done to you? He saved my life. He brought me here to keep me from going to jail for something he did. He could have just left me in Texas to face the police or he could have just killed me. Who are you people and what do you want from me? It’s no wonder all the Templars are gone. You kill each other off like flies.”
“We didn’t kill him. He’s not dead… yet,” Carlisle told her as he stood up and offered her his elbow. She pulled herself up and grimaced as the effort hurt her wrists. He frowned as he noticed the blood oozing through the wet bandages on her wrists, the result of another apparently botched suicide attempt. She was a complete failure it seemed. “We just want to talk to him. We want to know the same things about you. Who are you? What do you want from us?”
Merry simple stared at him as if he was from another planet. He was too pretty to be a man and was about four inches shorter than her. His hair was a beautiful strawberry blond and hung about his face in curly ringlets just like her own blond hair.
“We’re a sorry mess, sister,” he said quietly as he perused her soaked bandages, looking for serious trouble and finding none. She had missed the veins or else they were already healed. “Did you do that, too? Did he save you from that, too?”
“I did. And, yes, he did,” she told him irritably. “If it’s any of your business. Your illustrious Knight of Death saved my sorry life twice. And now you’ve done it. What is it with you people? Christopher told me that Mark Ramsay was dead. That one of you stuck him with his own sword.”
“He was dead, but he’s not dead now,” Carlisle told her. “You don’t understand anything, do you?” They walked along the beach back toward the dock volleying insults, questions and rude comments at each other… like old friends often do. True to form of non-interference or possibly indifference, the ferry had gone on about its business as if nothing had happened. Simon came toward them. His face was dark and he was soaked as well.
“What happened to you?” Corrigan asked and frowned when the Healer came closer.
“Stewart pushed me off the dock,” Simon told him and looked at Merry. “Are you all right, Mademoiselle?”
“I’m fine!” She snapped at him. “Now what do we do? Go back to the castle and roast marshmallows?”
“She knows nothing, Brother,” Corrigan told the Healer. “We may have made a serious mistake.”
“It’s a bit late now,” Simon told him and fell in beside them. “They’ve probably roasted Mark Andrew by this time.”
Danielle and Nina are rescued from their wicked step-mother by Emma the Yellow Dream Train who takes them on adventures. When Nina learns she has the ability to speak to animals, Emma and the other trains teach her how to use it.
Second in The Chronicles of Illúmaril series, author Gary Caplan's The Return of the Ancient Ones is a distinct tale that illustrates how one's fiercest enemy can become one's most aggressive ally.
Winner 2012 NABE Pinnacle Book Award in Fan
Lord Belmundus – The Omnibus One is a compilation of Books 1 through 5 of The Adventures of Lord Belmundus, a remarkable tale of other worlds, strange customs, beauty and warfare; and, in its grips, lands a young celebrity, who has the chaps to play
