Bestseller John James returns with this witty, serpentine novel, which weaves the Arthurian legends into the wider fabric of the struggle for Europe.

Gwenevere, Arthur's Saxon wife, is a problem. As the dynastic cement between the British and the Saxons, her marriage to Arthur will result in a child that will unite both sides. At least, that would have been the plan, had the Great Duke Arthur not died and left the petty kings of Britain to squabble over his title.

Only Morvran, Arthur's chief fixer, has the wit to see that the Fourth Gwenevere is the key to maintaining a crumbling peace. But when she is abducted, it seems that all hopes might disappear with her.

For, in a world where swords and horses have names of honour, where poets speak as oracles of a shifting truth and the raiding of Saxon warriors is set to ruin Britain, perhaps it's only the Fourth Gwenevere herself who has the real solution?