The settlement of Dun is a safe place, fortified from raider attacks, with its own spring to provide fresh water for all. The spring has never failed them - as long as it flows, Dun will never fall.
When the village captures a young raider, Nessan pleads to keep him alive, against the wishes of the elders. As the Chief's daughter, she wins out. Their captive settles into the village, he and Nessan become cautious friends. Things are peaceful. Until the spring begins to dry up.
Have they angered the gods by not killing this raider? Or is there some other force at work?
Rosemary Sutcliff was born in Surrey, the daughter of a naval officer. At the age of two she contracted the progressively wasting Still's disease, and hence spent most of her life in a wheelchair. Her first children's book was published in 1950, and from then on she devoted her time and talents to the writing of children's historical novels, which have placed her name high in the field of contemporary children's literature. Rosemary received an OBE in the 1975 Birthday Honours List. Rosemary Sutcliff's novels about Roman Britain have won much critical acclaim. The best-known of these is her The Eagle of the Ninth trilogy, of which the second book in the trilogy, The Lantern Bearers, was awarded the 1959 Carnegie Medal. Rosemary died in 1992 at the age of 72.
