INTO THE WOODSA serving girl is found in the well of a dying hamlet and the one who put her there has fled into Feckenham Forest. But the sun is setting and Sir Alain, Warwickshire’s sheriff, is hunting his shire’s new Crowner. That sends Sir Faucon de Ramis and Brother Edmund, his prickly clerk, racing for a nearby abbey only to meet the man he least wishes to see at the abbey gates. Before long, Faucon finds himself riding into the dark at Sir Alain’s side as they hunt for yet another lost innocent.