Labyrinth

In modern Carcassonne archaeologist Alice Tanner is drawn to entering a cave where she finds mysterious symbols and a ring with a labyrinth inscribed upon it. Putting the ring on her finger she faints but when she comes to,has a vision of the place some eight hundred years earlier when Alais Pelletier de Ma,a member of the Cathar religious sect,lived there. In the present Alice is questioned by the police about the ring but in 1209 Simon de Montfort and Guy D'Evreau are advancing on Carcassonne with an army,ordered by the pope to wipe out the Cathars as heretics. Alais's father is the guardian of a book which holds the secrets of the Holy Grail and,for safe-keeping, gives her the ring with the labyrinth on it as it is a symbol of the Grail. However she is betrayed by her jealous sister Oriane and,as Alice continues to hear voices from the past,the army prepares to attack.

Alice and writer Will Franklyn find themselves pursued by antique dealer Marie Cecile,leader of a secret society indulging in criminal activities,and her assassin ally Paul,both of whom want the books for their own ends. In 1209 the Cathars are overcome and Trencavel is killed along with several others. Oriane,planning to hand the books over to D'Evreaux,offers to marry him but Alais manages to escape and eventually locates holy man Hariff to learn more about the books before being forced to flee again. In the present Audric,an historian writing about the Cathars, produces the ring that everybody is after and tells Alice that she is a descendant of Alais. He also explains that the Holy Grail,far from being the Christian relic and goblet generally assumed,has the power to prolong life for hundreds of years. They go to the caves with the ring and a showdown which ties up all the loose ends.