Bernard Cornwell · 1997 · overland

The last Warlord Chronicle. Merlin tries to summon the old gods onto a Dorset hillfort, Aelle and Cerdic come west in the spring with everything they have, and Arthur is driven back to a hill above Bath for the battle the chroniclers remember him by - and then, years later, to Camlann.

1. 1
   Dun Caric

   Derfel's own hall in Dumnonia, granted for service - the domestic centre of the last book, and the place he keeps coming back to between the disasters, with Ceinwyn and their daughters.

2. 2
   Mai Dun

   Maiden Castle above Dorchester, the greatest hillfort in Britain, where Merlin builds his rings of fire and works the rite to bring the gods back - and Arthur and Derfel break it up, and Nimue never forgives either of them.

3. 3
   Caer Ambra

   Amesbury on the Avon, and the spring the Saxons finally come in force - Aelle from the north and Cerdic from the south, and the Britons pushed steadily westward with everything burning behind them.

4. 4
   Aquae Sulis

   Bath, taken and sacked by the Saxons - and Arthur pulls what is left of the army back and up onto the hill above the town, which is the last defensible ground west of the Severn.

5. 5
   Mynydd Baddon

   The hill above Aquae Sulis, and the battle: a siege, then Tewdric's Christian infantry arriving at last, then a charge that breaks the Saxon shield wall - Mount Badon, the victory the earliest chroniclers actually credit to Arthur.

6. 6
   Camlann

   Years on, with Mordred grown and everything undone, the last stand of a few hundred men against the rest of Britain - and Arthur carried off the field, and the sword put into the water by Derfel.

7. 7
   Ynys Wydryn

   Glastonbury, and the old monk Derfel writing it all down in a Gwynedd monastery for Queen Igraine - insisting, against every version she has heard, that this is what actually happened.