Into the dark world of fifteenth-century France, occupied by English enemies and riven by civil war, rides the glory of Joan of Arc. Although only a peasant maid, Jehanne of Lorraine has been foretold as La Pucelle for centuries in the prophecies of Merlin. The old magician's heir, Yann, is there to receive her when she comes. Although he wears the habit of an Augustinian monk and goes by the name of confessor Jean Pasquerel, Yann is a priest of the Old Religion, of the Horned God of the Wood. Using these ancient powers, he will gather about him the thirteen members of a coven to break the curse set on the land by the slaughtered Templar Knights. A current of shape-shifting and deep earthly power runs beneath the warrior-woman's well-known victories. Among the coven members is the dark lord, Gilles de Rais, who sees the girl as his salvation in more ways than one and fights at La Pucelle's side as she raises the siege of Orléans. But Gilles' divided loyalties threaten the course of prophecy and magic. Will Jehanne's gentle Dauphin ever be anointed in Rheims? And then, how is he to provide the Sacrifice the old magic demands of the King who must di