Vagabond (The Grail Quest, Book 2) - Tapa dura

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling Harlequin, this is the second instalment in Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest series.

In Harlequin, Thomas of Hookton travelled to France as an archer and there discovered a shadowy destiny, which linked him to a family of heretical French lords who sought Christendom's greatest relic.

Having survived the battle of Crécy, Thomas is sent back to England, charged with finding the Holy Grail. But Thomas is an archer and when a chance comes to fight against an army invading northern England he jumps at it. Plunged into the carnage of Neville's Cross, he is oblivious to other enemies who want to destroy him. He discovers too late that he is not the only person pursuing the grail, and that his rivals will do anything to thwart him.

After hunting and wounding him, Thomas's enemies turn him into a fugitive. Fleeing England, he travels to Normandy, determined to rescue Will Skeat, his old commander from Harlequin. Finally Thomas leads his enemies back to Brittany, where he goes to discover an old love and where his pursuers at last trap their reluctant pilgrim.

Vagabond is a vivid and realistic portrait of England at a time when the archer was king of Europe's battlefields.

'On the yew bow, there was a silver plate engraved with a yale, a fabulous beast of claws and horns that was the badge of his father's family, the Vexilles. The yale held a cup and that cup was Grail. Always the Grail.'

Thomas of Hookton, having survived the battle of Crecy, is sent by the King on a mission to discover more about his father's strange inheritance, which seems connected to the Holy Grail. This, Christendom's greatest relic, was thought to guarantee victory to whoever held it. But caught up in a battle against an army invading the North of England, Thomas finds that he is not the only person pursuing the Grail and that his rivals will stop at nothing to defeat him.

Thomas returns to his birthplace in the hope that he may find – among the ruins of his old home and his father's church – some indication of his father's secrets and his family's destiny. There, he discovers more about his father, but puts himself into even greater danger as the only holder of rare knowledge. Returning to France, Thomas finds old comrades and rediscovers a lost love. Then, in terrible circumstances, he at last comes face to face with his enemy and cousin – the elusive Guy Vexille, Count of Astarac.

Archers and mercenaries, Kings and monks, cardinals and noblemen of every hue – and one lady – bring the whole fourteenth century world brilliantly alive, amidst countries at war and a family in search of its lost inheritance.

'VAGABOND' is the second book in Thomas of Hookton's journey, which began in 'HARLEQUIN'