Prisoners

The Prisoners is the eighth book in The Fire Tree, a sweeping historical fantasy series set in the Scottish Highlands of the early 1600's.Consigned to Woden's Well — a deep, circular stone pit in the bowels of The Fortress of Inverness — Queen Annis and her rival Janine face a darkness far greater than the absence of light. Colonel Drew Jamieson, a sadistic officer serving the Duke of Cumberland, intends to murder them both and plunge Scotland into civil war. The chaos will open the door for a French invasion and allow a cabal of English conspirators to carve up the Highlands between them.Their captor has made a critical miscalculation. In the depths of their prison, stripped of everything but each other, Annis and Janine uncover a secret that has been buried since infancy: they are twin sisters, both daughters of the murdered Queen Cydara. The rivalry that defined their lives was a deception born of a mother's desperate love. The crown they fought over belongs to them both.Above ground, Constable Ewan Burberry languishes in chains while ancient prophecies come alive around him. The Duke of Bo'Ness hatches a plan so audacious it depends on recruiting pirates. Hamish Pottle and Neacal O'Keefe escape through a labyrinth of ingenious secret tunnels and traverse the Highlands under the protection of a disguised MacDonald army. At Burghead Bay, they strike a devil's bargain with a pirate chief who owes the Queen of the West a debt of honour.Meanwhile, Captain MacOwen plays the most dangerous game of all — feigning loyalty to a man he despises while waiting for the moment to turn. Two young twins - The Spiders - crawl through the chimneys. The Brydda stir from eight centuries of silence. Wild Flower, the ageless seer, moves between the scattered allies like a thread stitching together the fabric of fate.Loyalties are tested, sacrifices are made, and the "e;Englishmen's Field"e; is consecrated in blood and fire. As the Quickening burns brighter, the time for heroes draws near.The Prisoners is a tale of sisterhood, sacrifice and the unbreakable bonds that hold a kingdom together when all seems lost.