Author(s): Katie Grant

9-12 Years Middle Readers

Chalus Chabrol, 1199. The Occitanian knights battle for their lives against Richard the Lionheart. They are guarding the Blue Flame under which all Occitanians must unite to resist invasion. But the knights cannot survive and so it falls to Parsifal, young son of the knight Bernard, to travel on alone and find the true keeper of the Flame. Yet when Parsifal returns home, the Occitan is ablaze. Catholic Inquisitors and Cathar heretics, far from uniting, are fighting each other for the soul of the land and its people. To which sect does the Blue Flame belong? Parsifal's path intertwines with Raimon, son of a Cathar weaver, and Yolanda, daughter of a Catholic count. They are falling in love. But in a time of hate, love is never left in peace. With family against family, north against south and Catholic against Cathar, Raimon must help Parsifal find the Blue Flame's true meaning before the Occitan is destroyed.