Nothing exciting ever happens in Inverness. It’s nice and all that, but nothing ever happens.
So thought Xander Munro and his best friend, Katie Gordon, until the day that a random thug aimed a kick at Katie’s dog while they’re walking in the forest. This one, apparently pointless, act of violence sucks the youngsters into a chain of events that would change their lives forever in the course of a single week. Before they know it, Katie and Xander are standing toe-to-toe with a gang of mercenaries-turned-artefact-thieves led by former Legionnaire, Mac MacLeod. MacLeod’s big mistake is trying to steal the ancient ceremonial chain of the Pictish king Brude from the kids’ backyard. Patrick’s Brae is the hill where they had grown up, where they mountain bike and run. It is their spot. Mac and his men are about to find this out to their cost.
This modern-day standoff, however, is linked to events that happened on the same hill 1500 years earlier. The arrival of the Irish monk, Columba, has unsettled the community of Picts who live on Patrick’s Brae and rebellion is in the offing. The only one to realise the danger posed to the kingdom is Brude’s son, Talorgan, who is drawn into a deadly race against time. Can he prove that the druids are planning a coup before it’s too late and his father is dead?
And, somehow, the trials of the Pictish era are inseparably tied to the events of today. What happens to Talorgan will impact Xander and Katie’s lives forever. Three lives in the same place, separated by a millennium-and-a-half.
Can Talorgan save his family and his people?
Can Xander and Katie protect the priceless chain that once belonged to Talorgan’s father?
Will any of them get out of this alive?
Sure, nothing ever happens in Inverness…