King Richard the Lionheart has been crowned, and his loyal subject Robin Hood is preparing an army to take on the Third Crusade with Richard's forces to free the Holy Land from the grip of Saladin and his victorious Saracen army.In Sicily, en route to the Holy Land, the crusaders sack the town of Messina and Alan rescues and then falls in love with a beautiful Muslim slave-girl. But someone is trying to assassinate Robin - possibly the duo's old enemy Sir Richard Malbisse, who joins King Richard's army in Sicily and very soon has the royal ear as a favoured courtier.As Alan and Robin fight their way through the conquest of Cyprus, the siege of Acre and the climatic carnage of the battle of Arsuf near modern-day Tel Aviv, Alan discovers that Robin's motive for coming to the Holy Land is not as honourable as he had imagined...