Kindle Edition Amazon Brendan Carroll, Novelist Category:  Fantasy Publisher: Brendan Carroll ISBN-10:  1478146621 Type: Fiction Pages: 231 Copyright: Feb 9, 2012 ISBN-13: 9781478146629 Price: $3.99 (eBook) While the new Emperor of New Persia allows his hatred for all things Templar to cloud his already impaired judgment, the Ancient Evil expands his grip on the world, turning vast tracts into barren wastelands full of monstrosities with the help of an even more insidious power from beyond the Abyss. Meanwhile, the Templars fight to bring order and protection to the remnants of the human race using the crystal skulls to construct a safety net. While the new Emperor of New Persia allows his hatred for all things Templar to cloud his already impaired judgment, the Ancient Evil expands his grip on the world, turning vast tracts into barren wastelands full of monstrosities with the help of an even more insidious power from beyond the Abyss. Meanwhile, the Templars fight to bring order and protection to the remnants of the human race using the crystal skulls to construct a safety net. The Chevalier du Morte encounters a problem when he fails to recognize the truth about Sophia Cardinelli and lets his guard down one too many times. The results are disastrous for both of them as another surprising turn of events takes the Knight of Death in a different direction altogether.   Excerpt 111 Chapter Ten of Nineteen Relent, LORD! How long will it be? “Ye shud ’ave told me!” Mark Andrew rushed about the bedroom in a panic. Sophia sat in the middle of his bed with the sheet pulled up around her neck, smiling at him. “Why? Besides, you didn’t ask.” She shrugged and the sheet slipped. “’ere!” He grabbed her blouse from the floor and threw it at her. “’ow wud I ’ave known? Ye didna act th’ part! Besoides, ye tricked me!” “Tricked you?!” She laughed. “That’s preposterous. Look at the difference in our ages! How could such a child as myself have tricked a man of your years? No one will believe you.” “No one will…” He spun about and glared at her in astonishment. “And just who d’ ye think I moight be tellin’?” “Well, look at you!” She frowned at him and pulled the knit shirt over her head. “You act as if everyone already knows.” “If we dunna get out o’ ’ere they moight.” He told her. He could not believe that he had done this thing. He had only just been speaking to himself about how Meredith would be his only love and how he would hold her memory in his heart forever and how he hoped that she would come home to him and so on and so forth. He had been fooling himself! He would never change. What was worse, he was one of those fools that could never do such a thing and then just walk away. Oh, noooo. He always became emotionally involved with what Lucio would have simply called a ‘conquest’. Sometimes he thought that this was exactly why he was in the position he was in. Not because he had been a ruthless monster half his life. Not because he had shirked his duties and crawled out of the Abyss to wreak havoc on the world, but because he simply could not keep his damnable pants on. Or his kilt or his robe or whatever had stood between him and this sort of thing at the time! But it was not really the physical part of these relationships that brought him to ground. It was the emotional attachments. Why couldn’t he be more like Luke Andrew? But what was he saying? Luke wanted to marry this girl! If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. And what had made this particular sin even worse was that he had played into her hands like a damned fool. Celtic 112 warrior queen! He stopped and closed his eyes. She had climbed out of the bed and was pulling on her jeans. “You don’t have to be so upset. You would think that it was you who had been deflowered and not the other way around!” She told him irritably. “Deflowered?! My God!” He shook his head and then went to the closet. “Do you have to put it that way?” “How would you put it?” She asked him. “I didn’t say I was complaining.” “I wouldna say it a’toll. I’d just put yur damned flower bock.” He told her and then shook his head again at the absurdity of the words. It had started out as a joke. He had been quite sure he would frighten her away, that she would never carry through with the ritual bath, but she had gone along with everything. Even the stuff he had just made up off the top of his head. He had almost forgotten who he was and who she was and where they were and everything else for just a while. The bath had become ridiculous, but she had not backed off and then afterwards… well, he could only confess his sin to Simon and be done with it. If she did not tell her father, he would… but her father was dead. Had been dead for years. How could she have kept her virtue for all these years? It was unnatural in this day and age and for such a pretty girl, next to impossible. No wonder his son and Konrad and any number of other members of their little community had been after her. “I’m not a child.” She told him as he rummaged in the closet for a shirt. “You can stop worrying. I’m almost forty-five years old. I’m sorry that my virginity has upset you, but I have been saving it for you. I thought you would appreciate it a bit more.” “Of course I appreciate it.” His voice was muffled in the clothes hanging in front of him. “But…” He turned around and looked at her again. “You should have saved it for your husband. That’s how it should be. And what makes matters worse is that my son wants to be your husband!” “The Celts didn’t feel that way.” She reminded him. “Besides I know all about you and Sister Meredith. You were never married in a church. You claimed her by the old laws. You simply took her as your wife and she consented. No pressure, no worries. It could be the same for us.” “Please don’t speak to me about Meredith.” He looked about the room and saw Merry everywhere. Even the trim on the wainscoting seemed to accuse him. Sophia crossed the room and took his hands in hers. She looked into his eyes and then smiled. 113 “Please stop beating yourself up over it.” She told him. “I won’t tell anyone and I’ll give you time to think about it. There is really nothing you can do about it now anyway. It’s done. Finished and I know you well enough to know that you will do what is right. I have been waiting for you for a long time.” “Sophia!” He was speechless. “I can’t marry you! I promised myself and besides, you never told me who you are. I see you and I know you and yet I don’t know you. You are one of us and you keep your identity a secret? Who sent you?” “Who sent me? No one sent me. I came on my own. I told you already. I have been looking for you and waiting for you, but tell me…” she countered with her own questions “what did you promise yourself?” “I promised myself that I would not do this again. That I would not profane the memory of my wife.” He pulled away from her and went for some socks. “What about the bath? What about all those pretty words and ceremonies?” She asked him. “Oh, my God. I made most of that up just to scare you away.” He sat on the bed and began to pull on the socks. “Everyone is scared of me.

Brink of Disaster
Things are not looking good for the Knights. The world seems like it is on the edge of destruction with the Ancient Evil. Glad to see most of them teaming up against this evil, however, Marduk needs to man-up. Thinking back in the earlier books it's funny to remember the problems Ramsay had back then with Marduk and how they now seem trivial. How, indeed, some have fallen by wanting to be too much like men.
This book continues to enlighten the reader with the way of the Angels and the way things were before large populations of man. I am delighted to see Lucifer and the other Angels continue with their quest. They remind me of Lemarik and how entertaining it is for the reader.
This series of books has THE BEST group of characters. These characters are either good or evil. Simple. To read about them it is like you are there part of the action. If you have read this book then you, too, have been captivated by the author's creativeness and are anxiously awaiting the next in the series.

Another champion
Yet again Brendan Carroll holds My rapt attention with this saga. I am impatiently waiting for XXVII to appear and scared it won't!

Must Read
As always, Brendan Carroll comes through in this latest book in The Red Cross of Gold: Assassin Chronicles. This story keeps you on the edge of your seat, waiting to find out what's going to happen next. If you haven't read this series yet, and enjoy fantasy, romance, and science fiction, along with a fascinating interpretation of a mix of religions thrown in, you don't know WHAT you are MISSING!