The crusade is over, and relative peace has returned to the Holy Land, yet the magic and afflictions that permeate it haven't gone away. When Gauthier of Flanders, now a wandering knight, stops in a caravanserai and gives water to a Christian woman prisoner of the Order of Assassins, he has no idea what evil is about to be unleashed upon the world ... nor that he will once again have to stand against a deadly demon.