Where Angels Dare Book 1 - The Sacrist

“Of Holy blood, on Holy ground, with Holy lance…”

These are the ominous words which echo in the mind of young Templar Knight, Jean Calvert as he serves as the Order’s Sacrist, protector of holy relics and ancient knowledge uncovered by his knights under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in 1125AD.

As a modern-day U.S. President is savagely attacked by his own Secret Service Agents in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the world is stunned, yet unaware, that the assassination attempt has roots reaching back centuries to the secret scrolls of the Templars which foretell young Jean’s overwhelming destiny and dangerous missions he must confront from medieval times to the present day.

Following the dramatic present-day assassination attempt on the U.S. President, the story brings the reader back in time to 1118AD, just outside the town of Albi, in southern France.
Teenager, Jean Calvert, afflicted with a stutter, lives in relative peace as a country serf with his Blacksmith father, Marcus, his mother Vera, and his baby sister, Maddy. While the impetuous Jean dreams of leaving his commoner existence to one day achieve nobility as a knight, he still must provide meat for his family’s cookpot.

On the hunt, Jean tracks a wounded deer into the restricted hunting reserve of the local manor lord where his gamekeepers, led by the vile, Malveaux, catch Jean and hang him by the neck to set an example for other poachers. As Jean is about to give up the ghost, the first Grand Master of the Templar order of knights, Hugh DePayens, comes to Jean’s rescue and cuts the rope.
Bartering with the merciless manor lord for Jean’s life, DePayens accepts the punishment for Jean as banishment over death. After explaining the situation to Jean’s mother and demanding father, DePayens takes Jean on as his squire for his journey to Outremer, “land beyond the sea.” Before Jean leaves, however, his father Marcus bestows upon his a beautiful broadsword with the inscription, Argentum Promptus meaning “Quicksilver.”


Chapter 1.

After an eye-opening sea voyage across the Mediterranean, Jean and his new friend, Bartholomew, a child of nobility and squire to DePayens’ contemporary, lord Archaumbaud, arrive in Jaffa and prepare for the two-day march to Jerusalem.

Upon arrival at the Temple Mount, where the knights are to be lodged in the Al Aqsa Mosque, Jean and “Barty” are confronted with the tall. handsome, yet cruel Alsacian Chief of Squires by the name of Andre Riccard. Instantly, Jean’s stuttering affliction grants him the Riccard nickname of “Cricket.”

As the boys find lodging in the subterranean stables of Solomon, DePayens and his knights are caught in the middle of the secular and non-secular as they report to the mercurial King Baudoin and the opportunistic Patriarch Warmond. DePayens outlines his dual missions of protecting Christian pilgrims along the Jaffa road while simultaneously digging for ancient relics below the Temple Mount.

For two years, Jean and Barty live under Riccard’s hellish command as they perform their squirely duties and assist Mordecai, the trollish, yet gentle Templar breadmaker who allows them a tour of the Holy Sepulchre. Sir Gondemar, the accomplished swordsman and Temple Knight, also has taken the boys under his wing as he relentlessly trains then in the art of combat.

One fateful day down in the stables, Jean finds a hole scraped out of the earth by Lord DePayens’ horse, Traveller. As Jean investigates, he finds a secret entrance to an ancient vault. Immediately, he alerts Barty as the two descend into the dark, musty depths of an ancient cavern. When frightened by a long dead sentinel sealed alive thousands of years before, Jean and Barty race to tell their lords of the find. In the meantime, Riccard suspects something is amiss and investigates…he finds the chamber and walks away with a “find’ of his own just before he is confronted by Gondemar who sees Riccard for what he is…”bad seed.”


Chapter 2.

After years of relentless digging without results, a horse finds the greatest treasures of antiquity in a few hours of scraping. The Templars prepare to “deliver” the treasures to Jaffa then onward to France but Lord Montdidier, mentor and benefactor to Riccard, uncovers the real plot of DePayens that includes a staged shipwreck to convince the King and the Church that “all” was lost as the Templars surrepticiously safeguard treasures from the malevolent clutches of mankind. The self-serving Montdidier sets up a treacherous ambush for the Templar caravan through his Saracen mercenary contact, Abu Khalil, to wipe out the Templars, so he and Riccard can then retrieve the Holy relics for themselves.

As the three-hundred man column marches through the Judean hills protecting the wagon, Jean and Barty face their first taste of battle as two- thousand screaming Saracens sweep down upon the French infantry led by the mounted Templars. Montdidier is killed sending Riccard into his own killing frenzy as he inspires a Christian counterattack including a valiant Barty. When Jean sees his Lord DePayens fall from his horse he instinctively carries him to safety. As the battle dwindles, the exhausted Saracen forces make one last try for the unprotected wagon. As Gondemar pursues the captured wagon, it violently overturns and displays its cargo to all…just sand and rocks. The caravan was a diversion all along while a company of other Templar led soldiers arrive at Jaffa with the real treasures including the Holy Ark of the Covenant.

In the Jaffa garrison, DePayens recovers and notices something different with Jean. “Battle changes men, lad…and with you…you stutter no more.”

Due to his heroism, DePayens informs Jean of his recommendation to knighthood as a bugle call announces a hasty return to protect Jerusalem.

Jean is chosen by Gondemar to ride scout with none other than the blood-splattered Riccard. As he crests a ridge far ahead of the column, Riccard’s killing fever surfaces as he descends upon harmless Arab traders and commences his one-man butchery. Jean witnesses the massacre and tries to stop Riccard but fails. As Jean uses Quicksilver to end a mortally wounded man’s suffering, he is seen by other Christian soldiers and he and Riccard are both thrown into the cavernous prisons below Jerusalem for barbarism against non-combatants.

For two years of a ten-year sentence, Jean is verbally brutalized by Riccard in the adjacent cell who refuses to speak the truth of the massacre and clear Jean’s name. As Barty, now “Sir Bartholomew” sneaks into the prison chambers to deliver food to Jean, he is lured closer to Riccard’s cell where he is tricked, then murdered as part of Riccard’s escape plan. Using Barty’s sword to pry himself out, Riccard is now on the loose...