Martin Lake

Outcasts Martin Lake

Bernard and Agnes Montjoy keep an inn in Crusader Jerusalem. Their lives are about to be shattered. Guy, the new King of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, ignores the advice of wiser men and leads his army out of the city to do battle with the great warlord Saladin. Within days the Christian army is annihilated. Triumphant, Saladin leads his warriors towards Jerusalem, determined to win it back for his people. To defend the city there is only one nobleman, Balian of Ibelin, and four knights. In desperation Balian knights thirty ordinary men to lead the defence. Agnes begs Bernard not to fight but he feels he has no choice. He is desperate to protect Agnes, his two children and his nephew. Knighted along with him are two young pilgrims, John and Simon Ferrier. The new-made knights fight valiantly but can only delay the inevitable. Balian is forced to surrender the city to Saladin. Saladin allows the inhabitants to buy their own freedom. Bernard sell all he owns to raise enough to buy the freedom of Agnes and the children. Agnes sells even more. But on the final day, despite their sacrifices, their money is stolen. Agnes and the children are sold into slavery and Bernard and his friends await what they believe will be certain death. The world is in flames, the normal bonds of life shattered. Bonds of lordship, bonds of kinship, bonds of marriage and of friendship, all lay tainted and discarded. Yet in this turbulent time, three men find new fellowship and a mission. Saladin's brother buys the freedom of the courageous knights. His hope rekindled, Bernard determines to search the Muslim world for his enslaved wife and children. John pledges to aid him and then to pursue his own mission of revenge. A third man, a stranger, journeys with them to find himself. History says nothing more of the people raised so far above their normal station and then cast aside. Outcasts tells the story of how they fare in a world grown more bitter and fanatical. And of how Bernard and his friends take the bitter road to Baghdad to find his wife and family.