Order in chaos

The third novel in the thrilling historical trilogy about the rise and fall of the powerful and mysterious Templars. On Friday the thirteenth of October 1307, without any warning, King Philip IV of France ordered his armies to arrest every Templar in France during a single morning. Then, with the aid of Pope Clement V, he seized all the Temple assets and set the Holy Inquisition against the Order. Forewarned at the last minute by the Grand Master himself, who uncovered the King's plot too late to thwart it, Sir William St. Clair escapes overseas with the Temple's legendary treasure, taking with him several hundred knights, along with the Scots-born widow of a French Baron, the Lady Jessica Randolph. As the years pass and evidence of the French King's treachery becomes incontestable, St. Clair finds himself increasingly disillusioned. Eventually on behalf of his Order, he decides to abandon the old ties of loyalty and releases his men from their sacred vows of papal obedience. He leads them into battle as Temple Knights one last time, in support of Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, at the battle of Bannockburn. And in the aftermath of victory, the survivors begin a search for another legend mentioned in Templar lore: the fabled land, that lies beyond the Western Ocean, known as Merica.