The Encircling Sea

Начало книги

Thule: A mysterious island in the far north, whose identity is uncertain. The Romans may have applied it to one of the Shetland Islands, or even Iceland or Norway.

Tomi: Constanta in Romania

Trimontium: Newstead

Uxellum: Ward Law, although the identification is uncertain

SHE HAD GIVEN very precise instructions about her grave. Those last days were wracked with pain, and the lines on her face grew so sharp that she looked twice her thirty-nine years. Yet always she was lucid and precise, and when the end came he had done as he had been told, even though he did not understand why this stunted tree and this headland were so important.

It had often been like that in all their years together. She told him what to do and he obeyed, for his trust was complete. She saw things and knew things hidden from other mortals. That was simply the way of it and it was her power and wisdom that had kept them alive and allowed them to thrive in this place so far from their home. The others had not listened and had died or become slaves again. Only his men had survived and found a new place to live, where their neighbours feared them and brought tribute. None had dared to attack them for more than ten years, and that was her doing, for word of her magic had spread, and people feared her even more than they feared the savagery and steel of his warriors.

Читать дальше →