The Baron knelt on Raef’s stomach. “It does not take much of a blade to cause pain.” He drew a small knife. “You know, your father cried when I cut your mother. Bit by bit I cut her as she screamed. Now you too will know her pain.”

They murdered his parents, not for land, not for wealth, not for power, but to bind a new disciple into their dark cabal of sorcerers. Young Raef is pursued across Europe by a bloodthirsty band of renegade knights. He must find a new family and form new alliances. When the boy meets Simon, himself a sorcerer, he learns the true nature of his pursuers and discovers his own talent for the dark arts. Captured by slavers and dragged into the wilderness east of the Volga River, Raef is given a choice; save the life of a Mongol girl, or flee and save his own soul from the demon that hunts him.