The Crusader's Shadow: A Saladin Adventure

Previously

…He turned and walked away, disappearing into the gathering darkness as silently as he had appeared. I remained by the dying embers of the fire, the wooden bird clutched in my hand, the hermit’s words echoing in the vast silence of the desert. The threat was no longer a vague premonition, but a tangible danger, an artifact of immense power, sought by a cunning enemy, and I, Salahuddin, was somehow at its center. My faith, the bedrock of my existence, was about to be tested in ways I could never have imagined. The shadow had revealed its prize, and I knew, with a chilling certainty, that I would have to face it.