Black Sails
For readers of Bernard Cornwell, Ken Follett, and Conn Iggulden.
1205. Tarnovo. Tsar Kaloyan captures Baldwin, Emperor of the Latins, at Adrianople and chains him in a tower to look at the Danube. Rome never forgives Bulgaria.
March 1241. The Black Sea is dying.
The Mongols of Batu Khan have crossed the Volga. The Second Bulgarian Empire is headless - Tsar Ivan Asen II is dead, his heir is a boy of seven. In Venice, the bailo of Varna counts his profit and waits.
On the frozen causeway of Lake Durankulak, Kalya, daughter of Boyar Radomir of Karvuna, finds a man who should not be alive. Tall, starved, his hair pale gold like winter wheat, his eyes clear blue like the northern sea. Raimond d'Agoult. Knight of the Temple. Fugitive. Declared relapsus - a relapsed heretic - for protecting Cathars at Monts gur.
He clutches a black book. Inside: an inventory written in Occitan and Old Bulgarian. Six bones. Of John the Baptist. Hidden on St. Ivan Island since the Franks sacked Constantinople. And a copy of a papal bull: Bulgaria is schismatic and cannot protect holy things. Pay the Venetians in Varna to bring them to Rome.
To save the relics, they must steal them first.
From the rock cells of Aladzha to the besieged court of boy-Tsar Kaliman in Tarnovo, from the relic market of Venetian Varna - where the Church of the Holy Mother stands without its cross, thrown in mud with a mule tied to it, and the iron roof of Saint Athanasius, hammered in Samokov, is torn off to forge bullets - to the free pirates of the Danube Delta, Kalya and Raimond will chase a story that began with a tower in 1205 and will end on the cliffs of Kaliakra, where forty men must hold three walls cut in rock against ten thousand.
And on moonless nights, the fishermen still say, black sails pass the cape and do not answer hails.
BLACK SAILS is Book III of The Black Sea Chronicles - a brutal, lyrical historical epic about faith, plunder, and what men choose to burn rather than sell.
Contains the fully realized chapters: The Churches Without Crosses, Saint Athanasius, Father Theofan, and the Battle of Kaliakra.
Praise for The Black Sea Chronicles:
"Vivid, sensory, and unflinching. Varbanova writes medieval Bulgaria as it was - caught between Cross and Horde." - Reader Review
"Not fantasy. Worse. History." - Goodreads reviewer
Perfect for fans of:
The Last KingdomPillars of the EarthMongol Empire historical fictionTemplar and Cathar thrillersBalkan and Byzantine historyScroll up and step onto the Great Island. The ice is breaking.
Related Subjects
HistoryCustomer Reviews
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