Her years as a novice hardly prepared the plain and pious Juliana de Charnais to become the wife of GuErin de Lasalle, the Lord of Parthenay. A former mercenary with a formidable pedigree, Lasalle is a man singularly averse to conventions secular and spiritual. When a messenger arrives from the Holy Land and entices Lasalle back into a life he had abandoned, Juliana embarks on a perilous journey only to find herself trapped in intrigues as byzantine as they are deadly between the Lusignans, a family rumored to be descended from the half-serpent Lady MElusine, and their rivals, the IbelIns....