Robert sat huddled out of view, watching out across the dessert wasteland under a burning sun, alone save for the company of his horse. His orders were to wait for a messenger he would not know, but on arrival, he was told that the information being carried was vital to the army's existence in the Levant. Though he had no way of knowing, his future was to be driven and tormented by this messenger's directing of events, being drawn through conspiracy after conspiracy. He has sworn to kill her for the abomination she has woven around him, but when events take a different turn, he joins forces with her and sets out on what is to become a strange partnership that has an uncontrolled outcome.