From the bestselling, CWA Historical Dagger Award-nominated author of
The Angel's Mark (2019) and The Serpent's Mark (2020) The Elizabethan
world is in flux. Radical new ideas are challenging the old. But the
quest for knowledge can lead down dangerous paths... London, 1594. The
Queen's physician has been executed for treason, and conspiracy theories
flood the streets. When Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and
unwilling associate of spymaster Robert Cecil, is accused of being part
of the plot, he and his new wife Bianca must flee for their lives. With
agents of the Crown on their tail, they make for Padua, following the
ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena. But the pursuing English
aren't the only threat Nicholas and Bianca face. Hella, a strange and
fervently religious young woman, has joined them on their journey. When
the trio finally reach relative safety, they become embroiled in a
radical and dangerous scheme to shatter the old world's limits of
knowledge. But Hella's dire predictions of an impending apocalypse, and
the brutal murder of a friend of Bianca's forces them to wonder: who is
this troublingly pious woman? And what does she want?