Accidental Wizard and The 2nd Crusade

 

 Accidental Wizard released this week. From the back jacket:

Chris and Kenny wanted an adventure. They should have been more specific.

One step through an old fallen log and the twins are hurled into a kingdom at war--where a dying wizard has just spent his life summoning them. Now Chris is a blood mage, and every spell he casts tears his own skin. Kenny gets a sword that never loses and a shirt that turns blades aside. They'll need both.

A dragon-sorceress is coming. Her army is already crossing the desert, and the only thing that can stop her is a staff hidden since Merlin's time--guarded by blood wolves, trolls, and a traitor who wants the boys dead.

Two brothers. One impossible quest. No way home until it's finished.

It gives away a little more of the story than I would've, but it should arouse interest in the story.

You can get it here: ACCIDENTAL WIZARD is on sale this month. (Note this is an affiliate link whereby I or Rac Press or someone may receive some commission on qualifying purchases).

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FUN FACT: (From Chapter 14 of Crusaders by Dan Jones)

Edessa, one of the first Crusader states to be established, came under attack in the fall of 1144 by Imad al-dinn Zengi. The city fell to the besiegers on Christmas eve. Hugh, Bishop of Edessa, was trampled to death in the onslaught. Naturally, the Crusaders looked to Europe for aid.

Hugh, Bishop of Jabala, envoy for the Crusaders, found the papal state in turmoil. The newly elected pope, Bernardo Paganelli, had taken the name of Eugenius III; he needed something behind which Christendom could unite. Eugenius leaned heavily upon his mentor, Bernard of Clairvaux. December 1, 1146, Eugenius issued a call to the faithful to rescue their brethren in the Holy Land by a new crusade.

March 31, 1146, King Louis VII and Bernard of Clairvaux mounted a wooden platform outside Vezelay in northern Burgandy to stir the audience to righteous fervor. While the French King prepared for the crusade, Clairvaux went on to Brussels and elsewhere to spread the good word for action. He persuaded Conrad III of Germany and that king's greatest rival, Welf VI of Bavaria to join the crusade. 

Easter, 1147, fifty years after The First Crusade, and more than two years after the fall of Edessa, The Second Crusade set out for the Holy Land.