
Part 1
A futuristic helmet whisks its wearer into a vivid, sun‑blazed reenactment of the Crusader march toward Jerusalem. As the visor lifts, the listener finds himself seated beside Sir Robert de Bouain, surrounded by a sea of banners, armored knights, and the distant roar of desert winds. The scene feels both historically precise and oddly surreal, inviting you to wonder whether this is a simulation, a memory, or something altogether stranger.
Within the column, rivalries flare between the English lion‑hearted king, the French duke, and the stoic Gascon knight Gaeton, each voice echoing the politics that once divided Christendom. Their banter about looming Turkish forces, Bedouin skirmishes, and the oppressive heat builds a palpable tension, while the promise of an imminent clash hangs over the convoy. As alliances shift and the desert stretches ahead, the story asks what it truly means to be a warrior when past and future collide.
Language
en
Duration
~17 minutes (16K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2007-12-22
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1927–1987
A prolific mid-century science fiction and fantasy writer, he became especially well known for the Lord Darcy stories, where detective fiction meets an alternate world shaped by magic. He also wrote heavily for the pulp magazines of the 1950s and 1960s and collaborated with other major SF writers.
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