Crucible (Douglass)

they teeter on the edge of hell, the select priests who do the will of the angels...Reveal this secret to any other, and you can be sure that the angels themselves will ensure your death ?o each single priest named by the angels has been told before being entrusted with the horrifying responsibility. These priests have made the lone journey to the Cleft, there to perform certain duties ... incantations to ensure that the spawn of angels and humans do not wreak havoc on earth. Wynkyn de Worde has undertaken the journey from Rome to Nuremberg over one hundred times, but now the plague ravages Europe, and this time his health, too, fails. A visitation from the Archangel Michael ensures that another will follow Wynkyn, but in the decade between succession, will the godless fill the land ...

The Black Plague. The Pestilence. Disease and death haunt every town and village across 14th century Europe and none are immune from its evil. Some see the devastation of their world as a sign from God for Man's wickedness. But Brother Thomas Neville sees this swath of death as something much more. Neville is a man beset by demons. Or is it angels? He has had a visitation from none other than the Archangel Michael, who commands Thomas to a mission. This mission will take Neville across the length and breath of the continent in a desperate bid to find the means to stop the minions of Satan who have found a doorway out of Hell and are preparing to venture forth, to try and seize this world in preparation for an assault on Heaven itself. As Thomas Neville encounters angels and demons, saints and witches, he comes to realize that the armies of God and Satan are arraying themselves for the final battle...and that his soul is to be the battleground. The question is, has Neville picked the truly good side? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Middle Ages. Finally, the Black Plague has passed and for a while it seems evil has been defeated. Europe recovers; prosperity returns, trade resumes, and people slowly recover from the effects of the plague. Then, just as the Church relaxes its guard, war spreads across Europe. Widespread heresies challenge the authority of the Church. Revolts and rebellions threaten to topple the established monarchies and overturn the social order of Europe. And then, the plague returns, worse than ever. Thomas Neville, a neurotic warrior-priest, eventually discovers the cause. The minions of the Devil have been scattered throughout European society during the confusion of the Black Death. His task is to discover the identities of these shapeshifters so that the Church can move against them, but it is a dangerous task. These are master shapeshifters, perfect at their craft, and Neville can never be certain of who he should trust.

The world that the former monk Thomas Neville knows is crumbling about him. The Holy Mother Church of Rome is losing its power and men are coming to question the nature of religion and the role of those who rule them by sword and cross. Thomas knows that it is not merely the dawning of a new time for men to try to think and judge for themselves but it is a direct result of the rift in the fabric of the world, where demons have escaped their prison and are trying to breach the very gates of heaven. The great archangel Michael gave Thomas the task to find the demons who now dwell in human form and expose their evil natures. To accomplish this he had to turn his back on one set of vows and return to his once lofty noble connections. In doing so, his life is caught up with his childhood friend Harold Bollinbroke, the fair young "Prince Hal"-who might be more (or less) than he seems. And he meets the fair young Margaret, an enigmatic beauty who he takes to wife-not out of love, but as a means to discover if she is one of those who would destroy mankind. Old friends, a new love, and temptations that will try his conscience. And his very soul. For Thomas is beginning to think that all that he knows may not be true. Faced with mortal love and friendships that he desperately wants and fears, he knows that time is growing short. And the choice that he makes will reshape the world. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Her most stunning novel yet - the final instalment of the Crucible. The battle for mankind soul draws to its terrible conclusion - and it is far worse than anything Thomas Neville had thought possible. The angels have been scheming for aeons, and they don’t intend to allow either Thomas Neville or Hal Bolingbroke to spoil their triumph. Where Neville thought he had choice, he finds only despair; where he thought he found love, he finds only the angels entrapments. England is reeling under supernatural plagues and treachery-driven rebellions. Mankind fate rests on the outcome of three battles: Agincourt, where Bolingbroke challenges Philip for Catherine and for France; the sacrificial ground before Joan pyre, where Neville must choose between his love for Margaret and the will of the angels; and the Field of the Angels itself - Heaven, where Christ watches and waits.