If we're going to make a new order for Rome, a better order, I might add-sacrifices have to be made. We have set the assassination date for the Ides of July ...

What better opportunity for a beautiful young widow than to join a prestigious trade delegation bound for Gaul? There was the fanfare as the procession left Rome, the breathtaking journey through lush Alpine meadows. And let's not forget the promise of riches for delivering a certain pouch, sealed with the sign of the black salamander.

Except things are never that simple when Claudia Seferius is involved. There's a rockfall, for a start, which leaves the party stranded, as well as five men dead-and one death is not accidental.

All Claudia wants to do now is to get out of the valley they are trapped in and hand over the pouch. But there are those who will go to any lengths to stop her.

And suddenly Claudia finds herself plunged into a deadly game of high treason, in a land where warriors still hunt human heads and where wicker-man sacrifices are far from rare...