Publisher's Synopsis
Young Merlin, brought up equal shares Druid and Celtic Christian, has a dream. But, in AD 475, when he's been sent to Rome by Ambrosius - to study for the Priesthood with The Professionals - this young wizard extraordinaire has other ideas. Because... he also has a vision! It materialises alongside the dream in AD 525 when he meets a fellow traveller on the Via Ostia in post-Roman Italy who gives him a staff with two entwined snakes carved around it. In AD 1876, the vision gets bigger, and it keeps changing shape. Almost as often as he keeps time-slipping into the unexpected... In AD 2016, an ordinary archaeologist in Glastonbury has an extraordinary experience - which she excavates. She discovers a 9th-century Carolingian monastery that has never been built but matches the 9th-century plan of itself that was commissioned by Emperor Charlemagne to perfection. What's more, it's in a 6th-century context in Somerset. In AD 2018, just as excavations of this strange anomaly are wrapping up, much stranger things than its mere existence are beginning to happen with exponential rapidity, and Vanda is forced to give up all thought of control in a life that is spiralling so out of control that it no longer seems to be her own. Then there's the fortuitous appearance of Brian and his mysterious legacy... more than sufficient to rebuild the monastery, of course... you know, the one that was never built? But will Vanda's talents meet this legacy's peculiar criteria? Are you brave and steadfast enough to join them all on their roller-coaster ride through history, the discovery of some of Time's Most Precious Hidden Secrets, and a lot of beautiful scenery? After all, there will be a dragon or two, perhaps a hideous monster, and maybe even a spaceship... it'll be Magic!
