Description

857 AD. ROME

Father Asser is waiting to die.

His idealism has landed him in a papal prison on trumped-up charges of heresy, until salvation arrives in an unexpected form. Cardinal Balotelli also dreams of a better world, one free from the ravages of the Norlanders. He has a vital job for Asser, one that could shape the future of Europe.

WESSEX

King Aethelwolf's power is fading, but none of his feckless children are fit to rule. His older sons would rather fight each other than the bloodthirsty Norland invaders. His daughter, Swift, is clever and cunning, but is too often blinded by her ambition. Finally, there's Alfred, his once-promising younger son, whom nobody has seen in years.

Then Wolf meets a young priest with a proposition from Rome that could change everything.

LINDISFARNE

Rhiannon is a young slave with a profound hatred of her Saxon captors. When she meets Guthrum, a Norlander hell-bent on wiping Wessex from the map, they set out on a journey of destruction. So begins an epic struggle between greed and idealism, ambition and betrayal, freedom and tyranny. Because change always meets with resistance and, on the path to power, nobody can be trusted.