Taliesin, oracle of melody. His singing bore the haunting beauty of another world and the spark of a kingdom yet to come.

Charis, Lady of the Lake. Driven by the cataclysm that destroyed her home-the scented groves of the Isle of Apples, the coliseums of the bull dancers of Atlantis-she encountered an uncertain future in a barbarous land ... and the bard who would capture her untamed heart.

Their love would bridge two worlds. And like golden threads, their lives would knit the fabric of a timeless legend; that of Merlin the prophet and Arthur the king.

Stephen Lawhead's majestic retelling of western literature's most compelling epic is an enchanting tale of love and loss set in the twilight of Rome's power, as the Celtic chieftains of Britain battle to save their land from an onrushing darkness.