Thomas of Hookton is one of those archers When his village is sacked by French raiders, he makes a promise to God to retrieve the relic stolen from Hookton's church Escaping his father's ambitions, he becomes a wild youth who delights in the life of an army on the warpath Driven by his conscience and protected by his fearsome skills, he enters a world where lovers become enemies and enemies become friends, where his only certainty is that somewhere, beyond a horizon smeared with the smoke of fires set by the rampaging English army, a terrible enemy awaits him This enemy would harness the power of Christendom's greatest relic the Grail itself Here, in the first book of a new series, the quest begins It leads him through the fields of France, to the village of Crecy where two great armies meet on the hillside to do battle