The setting is 7th century Northumbria. King Oswald is seeking to strengthen his alliances with a marriage to the daughter of the King of Wessex. Our hero Beobrand goes with him and is tasked with escorting the new Queen back to Northumbria. This involves travelling over Mercia where the Queen is captured, willingly, by the son of the King of Mercia.
Beobrand chases them and recaptures the Queen. He then rejoins King Oswald who is fighting the Picts and besieging a fortress, which gives the traditional climatic battle ending. You do need to read these books in sequence as the sub-plots have a thread which wouldn't make much sense otherwise.
This is a good as the second book in the series. Very difficult to put down and I have already ordered the fourth book for my holiday reading.
This is a period when Christianity was just becoming established in Britain, but pagan beliefs were still widespread. So a good excuse for digging out one of my favourite vignettes.
And lets have some Saxon warriors as well. A perfect unit for Lion Rampant.
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