A knight, disenchanted by the faraway battles he has fought, returns home to hislate father’s castle. He quickly realizes it is in hopeless disrepair, and he leaves againto build a life for himself elsewhere.
As he journeys through the forest, he encounters a dark-haired womanwho enchants him into becoming her slave for 5 long years. But as it becomes clear that nothingwill come of their union, the womanreleasesthe knightbut curses him: he will seek love but will never find it.
The knight rides his horse again and continues on his way, coming across a settlement.It is a monastery for a Roman brotherhood, where men live off their land and share in its work and its joys together. They also share each other.
The knight lives with them for months with gladness in his heart, until he meets another companionwho becomes very special to him. But the exclusivity of their bond does not goover well with the others,who say it’s a contradiction to the rules of the order and the spirit of their brotherhood.
The knight has just found a home, and someone he can give his heart to. How can he choose one over the other? What path will the knight take now? And what other curses – and gifts – will he find in the forest?
SAMPLE:
With strength drawn from the barks of trees and herbs buried deep in the forest, she led him to her bed. He saw her as a blazing, blurry figure shrouded in a fog, sending off the icy colors of diamonds struck by the rays of a winter moon.
When he was drained of poisonous infections, she mounted him and gazed upon him till he rose and straight inserted him inside her and pulled from him what little life was left to fertilize her barren womb with laughing hope.
He wandered through her cavernous depths, afraid and aggrieved with a loneliness that picked at the bones of his soul.