The second novel in Stephen Baxter's Time's Tapestry series.
Inscribed in Latin, the ancient scroll known as The Prophecy has remained in the hands of a single family for generations, revealing secrets about the world to come, and guiding them to wealth and power...
Three centuries have passed since Rome fell, as foretold by The Prophecy—which is now in the hands of a young girl who lives disguised as a boy among the monks on the isle of Lindisfarne. When the Vikings come, deliberately destroying the final copies of the scroll, it will still live on—in the memory of one family. And when William of Normandy, whom history will call the Conqueror, rises to power, once more the fate of the land rests on actions inspired by the ancient words.
But as time passes, memories dim—and the surviving member of the family struggles to understand his heritage before all knowledge of the future will be lost to the past…