Book excerpt: AD 57: Caradoc is lost forever, betrayed to Rome and exiled in Gaul, leaving Boudica bereft, to lead the tribes of the west in an increasingly bloody resistance against Roman occupation. Only if she can drive Rome from the land will she find the peace she needs and to do that, she must raise once again the tribes of the east. Her people, the Eceni, languish in the shadow of the Legions, led by a man who proclaims himself King and yet allows slavers to trade freely in his lands. Too notorious to reclaim her own birthright, Boudica strives instead to return her daughters to their heritage. Across the sea, Boudica’s half-brother, Bán, has been named traitor by both sides. He too, seeks peace on a journey that takes him from the dreaming tombs of the ancestors to the cave of a god he no longer serves. Only if Boudica and Bán meet can their people — and all of Britannia — be saved. But the new governor has been ordered to subdue the tribes or die in the attempt, and he has twenty thousand legionaries ready to stop anyone, however determined, from bringing Britain to the edge of revolt....