‘Tantum religio potuit suadere malrum!‘ Only religion can lead to such evil. Such is Merlin’s anguished cry as he witnesses the destruction of Jerusalem. The year is 1099.As Merlin’s past life interweaves with this one and people from that life mix with new ones, his mission emerges: to accompany Wilda to the Holy Land to protect her from the many dangers of the war that is known in our times as the First Crusade. He is forced to return for the Second Crusade. And the third. He loves the people he is protecting. He hates the wars and the religions that cause them. And the men of the church want him dead.