It is 409 AD in Britain and the Roman legions are gone. Britain is abandoned and the fledgling colony of Camelot needs a new leader. Two young men, related by blood, step forward prepared to share that responsibility: Caius Merlyn Britannicus, the grandson of Camelot's founder, and his first cousin, the Celtic prince Uther Pendragon. But an act of cold barbarism shatters the trust and comradeship these two have shared since childhood and causes Merlyn to doubt his cousin's morality.