“All is well, Detective. Now, to business and to bloodshed. I asked Meg to invite you here, Detective, because we are, all of us, in a precarious position. An attack was made on my person recently. That action alone would have brought severe reprisals on whoever had committed it, but I have no real proof, so I cannot and will not act against them.”
“Them?” asked Judas.
“We must go back to the beginning, Judas, back to the time of the Romans and the occupation, to fields of blood and broken spears, to the death of a once powerful tribe and the disappearance of a queen. I remember that night like it was yesterday, Detective. The sky was raspberry red over the battlefield and great fires were consuming the bodies of the fallen Iceni warriors. Some had called out to me; they did not want the
