Soldier From the Sky 6

Soldier From the Sky

A sweeping tale of love, war, time and treasure in six books


World War II. Nick Mancuso, a Brooklyn-born, deadeye gunner on a B-24 bomber is severely wounded in aerial combat, bails out over the wintry Apennines and loses consciousness while still in his parachute, his last thoughts on his lover, Theresa.

He awakens displaced in time, under the care of Italian partisans. By ancient magic and force of fate he’s become his own medieval ancestor and leader of a peasant rebellion in collusion with the tyrant's dangerously enchanting daughter.

To return to Theresa and parallel existence Nick must fight for his life in a world of hidden treasure, superstition, star-crossed love, intrigue, brutality and betrayal, and show fierce bravery in an epic battle for gold, glory and survival in 14th Century Italy.


Book Six: Immagine

Nick reawakens in Nico’s reality, cognizant of both lives. Antiocha closely resembles Chiara. He knows he must lead the rebel attack on Sudbury, and get to San Michele to reunite with Theresa.

Keeping her foremind, he leaves Antiocha behind to protect the old seer and rejoins his militia. They ambush  Sudbury. Nick’s heightened senses make him fast and fierce. Many die and his brother Giorgio surrenders, claiming he’s Sudbury’s agent. Nick realizes the secrets of gunpowder can keep him alive, so hides it in the wagon of a traveling glover.

After the battle, the rebels make a break for San Michele, outriding Sudbury’s rolling advance. Antioocha abandons the old woman to follow Nick, trapping him in the brutal time. 

Focused on Theresa, he arrives in San Michele shortly before Sudbury surrounds the walls. Antiocha’s reappearance, alliance with Nick and revelation of Filippo’s illegitimacy turn his army against him. She exchanges Filippo for Giorgio and the glover, along with the cargo of concealed powder.

Prisoners traded, Sudbury attacks the town. Nick’s one thousand-arrow battery works, but can’t stop the enormity of attack. Peasants are violently massacred. Sudbury’s cannon blows the town gates down and his troops lay waste.

Defeated, Antiocha and Nick’s brothers turn him over to Sudbury. Antiocha swears there is no treasure in San Michele. Under torture, Filippo confesses the tale of gems and  talk of gunpowder are ruse, to trap Sudbury.

Sudbury locks Nick and Annunziata in a hog cage in the plaza, for execution next day. Filippo’s counselor diverts the guards with gold, and Nick’s loyal rebels kill them and free him and his sister. Nick and Antiocha had planned his capture and escape. In the palace, Antiocha talks her way to Sudbury’s chamber, to paralyze him with poison, so he will feel the blade when Nick cuts his head off.

Nick knows he'll never survive the games of power and greed and prepares to go to Florence, to find the alchemy to traverse time and get back to Theresa, but is killed by a trusted peasant who lost everything for Nico’s gain. Life drains from him.

He blinks awake in the blind forager’s hut. Chiars is there, with Miro and two English commandos, ready to take him past the Nazi front.

Nick reunites with Theresa and the fortunes of  their love and life in 1944, never after mentioning his previous existence. The Cathar tattoo on his foot conveys the truth. Decades later, he returns to the bombed ruins of San Michele, and, in flash of memory, realizes where the Jewels of Saladin are, still hidden in a Medieval rock wall.