Dante's Cross
by E. L. Noel

Dante de Montcada, a disillusioned Spanish knight, longs for rest after nine long years of fighting on the bloody fields of Palestine. In a land barren of peace, where Fortune casts her hard gaze on both the innocent and the guilty, Dante labors to save all that is dear to him. Compassion for the innocent, and the courage with which to defend them, is the very axis upon which his violent world turns. But at a time when honor is everything and disobedience is punishable by death, Dante runs afoul of his king, Richard the Lionheart. And a king's request is a knight's command. Or a hangman's opportunity.