Silk Road

the long version

A Templar knight. An irascible priest. A Mongol princess. An impossible journey. The Holy Land, 1260: Josseran Sarrazini has nothing left to lose. Sent by the pope on a mission that will take him beyond the edges of the known world, he knows the journey is impossibly dangerous... and suspects he will never return. That suits him just fine. But only days into the trek, Josseran wants to throttle the man he is sworn to protect - a sharp-tongued priest whose survival rests entirely in his hands. Far to the east, Khutelun is the fearless daughter of a Mongol chieftain. She was raised in the saddle of a horse. She can hit a stag with an arrow at two hundred paces. And she considers no man her equal. But when she is ordered to escort the Christian ambassadors along the treacherous Silk Road, she meets her match in Josseran. Together they face searing deserts, treacherous mountain passes, kidnappers and blood feuds - all on the road to the fabled city of Xanadu and the court of the great Kublai Khan. But survival may not be enough... because what awaits them at journey's end could change the fate of empires.