‘So beautiful, so haunting . . . bitingly real . . . Giles has given us a vital, glorious story: rich, rewarding, and utterly revealing of our times’ Manda ScottFollowing his acclaimed Lancelot, Giles Kristian’s new novel returns us to the realms of Arthurian legend . . .The Saxons have returned and their war bands stalk the land. The lords of Britain look only to their own survival, unable or unwilling to unite as they once did under Arthur.And in a monastery hidden in the marshlands of Avalon, a novice monk prepares to take his vows. However, two strangers – the wild-spirited, Saxon-killing Iselle and the ageing warrior Gawain – will pluck him from his sheltered existence and his world will be turned upside down.Together they will go in search of the last druid, to find the cauldron of a god, and to raise an army to hold the darkness at bay.And as they journey, so the novice will cast aside his training and embrace his legacy.For he is a warrior born.