Through the generations the women of Avalon prepare for the coming of the Defender, the sacred king who will guard the old ways of the Britons and save their land from destruction. On the holy isle of Avalon, hidden in the mists between the world of Faerie and the world of men, they wait... For High Priestess Caillean, facing the Roman foe, salvation comes not through victory, but bitter sacrifice. Two hundred years later her successor Dierna faces...