> Templars, including a Templar Knight capable of opposing the evil sorcerers
> miraculous healing
Medieval Outsiders
> a gleemaiden (female minstrel and player) on the run from the Church
> a boy with magical powers and a mysterious background
> wise women/healers
> Cathars
> The White Brotherhood
> an Arab sorcerer
The third of the Richard Straccan books
England, 1211
Sylvian Hamilton is a wonder with opening lines. This new book begins:
Countess Judith kept her husband's head in a box. At night it perched on a pillow by her side, at meals it sat on the board by her plate
Of course the head goes missing and later comes quite by chance into the possession of Sir Richard Straccan, hero of The Bone-Pedlar and The Pendragon Banner, dealer in sacred relics during the period known as the Interdict, when the whole of England was placed under interdict and no religious ceremony of any kind was permitted to take place.
Inside the splendid, cross-shaped church [Waltham Abbey] the miraculous Black Rood hung over the west door, veiled now, of course, because of the Interdict. None in all England might gaze on the crucified Christ while its king persisted in his wicked flouting of the Pope.
Not that the head of Lord Joceran, Countess Judith's husband, was a sacred relic - far from it.
In The Gleemaiden, Straccan sets out to escort an enormous bell from London (where no bells may ring because of the interdict) to the Abbey at Coldinghame, in Scotland (where they are in need of a bell and no interdict exists), but finds himself also excorting the beautiful Roslyn de Sorules, the gleemaiden of the title and her charge, a seven-year-old boy named David; Roslyn and David are refugees from the iniquitous Crusade against the Cathars in the south of France and are even now, in England, being pursued by three knights of the horrifying White Brotherhood, a company of fanatical heretic-hunters used by the Church to track down and eliminate "extreme cases".
In the background are Gilla, Braccan's daughter, and Janiva, the healer and wise woman with whom Straccan fell in love during his previous adventure (as readers of the first book will remember); and the spy, Larktwist also makes a welcome reappearance and plays a large role in ths book.
Larktwist sniffed. 'What about money?'
Mercredi pushed a purse across the table, and Larktwist secreted it somewhere among his tatters, scratching as he felt the migration of a tribe of lice from armpit to groin.
Mercredi frowned. 'Locksey's a small place; you can't pass as a beggar there, and they'll drive lepers out, so get yourself cleaned up. Look respectable - if you can.'
'Course I can,' said Larktwist, affronted. He knew how to mix with nobs, if the need arose. He hitched his rags about himself with dignity and turned to leave. 'Trust me.'
'A touch of refinement wouldn't go amiss.'
'You want refinement? Easy! I'll be as refined as a nun.'
As he reached the door, Mercredi said, 'And Larktwist '
'Yes?'
'Stick to him.'
'Oh, I will, sir. Like shit to a blanket.'
Another great read, with many memorable scenes, such as the description of one small part of the slaughter that took place during the Albigensian Crusade, and a host of memorable medieval characters.
