Our Ancient Ancestors Series

In 865AD, Vikings attack the female Bramingham Monastery in the Kingdom of Northumbria. The building is looted with everything of value taken by the pagans. Abbess Jane and senior nuns are slaughtered and the younger nuns abducted into slavery. Maiden Kendra, minding the monastery sheep on the top plateau during the attack survives. This is her story. PART 1 KNOW THINE ENEMY In 865AD Vikings attack the female Bramingham Monastery in the Kingdom of Northumbria. The building is looted with everything of value taken by the pagans, Abbess Jane and senior nuns are slaughtered and the younger nuns abducted into slavery. Maiden Kendra, minding the monastery sheep on the top plateau during the attack survives. One other survivor, postulant Jolene finds her and together they return to the monastery. Secrets are discovered that both help and hinder, including secret tunnels, a mine and evidence of clandestine trading with Vikings. A knight from the King's army arrives but is as ruthless as the Vikings. He is driven from Bramingham but places the monastery under siege. With winter coming there is every chance that they will be starved into submission. PART 2 KNOW THY FRIENDS One night, Kendra awakens to see a Viking standing by her bed. He is Rodmaf who tells her she is the daughter of Thorodd, a dying Viking chieftain who wants to see her before he dies. Under threat of having her friends killed, she agrees to accompany him back to his homeland. At the Viking village of Brodsted Kendra meets Hendrix, Thorodd's wife and the old man who is her father. She learns that her mother died giving birth to her and that Rodmaf is her half-brother. Thorodd dies and a terrified Hendrix tells her that they must leave otherwise they will be sacrificed at Thorodd's funeral.

It is 320 AD and Hadrian's Wall separates Roman Britannia Inferior (now the northern counties of England) from the free lands to the north where the village of Darbarri is located. There, Jelena is asked by her father Druid Floyd to travel south of the wall into Roman territory to help the people in the small village of Bramfield. It is a dangerous area for the new Roman emperor has declare that everyone living in the Roman Empire should convert to their new faith. For the Celtic, this means giving up generations of their beliefs with numerous gods and practices. Druids are not welcomed in Roman lands anymore even though they had helped villagers for centuries. With three friends, Olwina, Tad and Craddock she manages to reach Luguvahum the largest city south of the wall but with it, a surprise and perhaps the reason why her father sent her south in the first place. She finds he has taken a third wife, Kigva who is from one of the top Luguvahum families and she is having a difficult time giving birth to a child. Only Jelena and Olwina can help. Jelena's tiny half-brother is born but danger surrounds them everywhere. An over-zealous Bishop Eucid wants them all arrested for crimes and blasphemy against the new faith but they are forewarned and escape from the city to head for the village of Bramfield, Jelena's original destination. There, she must stop the villagers from using polluted water, overcome local superstitions, problems at a nearby Roman lead mine and establish her own position as a leader in the community. There is also Kigva to befriend and the baby to look after. As well as the bishop, she finds another enemy is Bard Griffen from her home village, who wants to force her to marry him in the summer selection of brides. This ancient practice is banned by Druid Floyd's latest decree but is ignored by the ruthless bard. How do Jelena, friends and extended family cope? There is not one but two ruthless men on their trail while at the same time she must help villagers under her care and survive in the hostile Roman territory. She befriends many and alienates others in this exciting story of our ancient ancestors from almost one thousand, seven hundred years ago?

In 1530 AD, Meztli and Cualli are saved from an Inca sacrificial site where virgins are left to die to appease their gods because conquistadors invaded their lands. Zolin, Meztli's childhood friend has been sent by Hermit Tupac to rescue them, which he does. They must now follow a perilous journey along Inca trails through the mountains and the safety of free Inca towns. Etalpalli, one of the priests who brought the virgins to the sacrificial site attempts to find the pair. Conquistador Capitán Buena Giraldo teams up with Etalpalli who lies about his knowledge of a local gold mine is. Meztli and her friends are met by Urco from Cualli's village. He has been sent by Tupac to tell them that there is no safe haven through the mountains. Instead they must use to a secret cave that goes under the mountains to a hidden valley and golden pyramid. A far greater threat catches up with them. It is smallpox, a plague brought by the conquistadors that is devastating the local population. Only a few adults survive. For some unkno reason the conquistadors are immune and Inca children also have a high survival rate. After travelling through the cave, Meztli and her friends arrive in the secret valley of Ehuraythak and golden pyramid to find that the entire population of adults have died from the plague and only children have survived. These are led by two twelve-year-olds, Palia and Ekko who soon welcome the four adults and the tiny community becomes self-sufficient. Meanwhile, Tupac learns that a new order of fanatical priests have arrived to replace the original ones in the local temple who died with the plague. Their solution is to sacrifice all the children and the few remaining mothers at the next full moon. Tupac is too old to be able to stop this latest sacrifice himself so sets out to find Zolin and the maidens to ask them to return to the sacrificial site and rescue the latest victims. On the way he is attacked by rogue priests including Etalpalli. His llama is killed and he is shot by a musket that the conquistadors have brought to their land but manages to fight them off by using his slingshot. His one thought now is to get to the pyramid but with a musket ball in his shoulder he is weak and knows that if the ball is not removed he will die. Back at Ehuraythak, Palia and Ekko find Tupac. Though weak he survives and tells the four that they must return to the sacrificial site to rescue the mothers and children before the next full moon due to rise in only two weeks. Meztli and her friends begin a new journey back in a race against time through hostile territory controlled by the conquistadors and rogue priests. Their success depends on the help of others and sometimes the enemy become almost friends. The cost though, is gold and a lost gold mine that Capitán Giraldo believes is still in the area. Does this mean that the pyramid must be surrendered and do they reach the forty children and adults about to be sacrificed in time?

In 450 AD there was no United Kingdom, the Romans had left Britannia a generation before and the land was ruled by dozens of waring pagan kingdoms. This left the way open for different invaders from across the sea. Saxons arrived and violently overran Glouvia Kingdom in the southwest where nurse Kyla O'Knife was helping survivors of a recent plague, wounded warriors and civilians in distress. However, fate was about to deal Kyla a hand. Whether it was good or bad was still to be determined when Kyla was summoned to the dying king's bed and informed that she was his daughter by one of his wives. The entire royal family had been assassinated so after the king's death she became Crown Princess Kyla and ruler of Glouvia. This was a pyrrhic position for the Saxons now ruled the kingdom. They wanted her dead to discontinue the royal family line and she became a refugee. After rescuing enslaved women, Kyla who was helped by independent forest people, headed towards the hill country and sanctuary at a Christian monastery. Her troubles were not over for Llandover Monastery had been hit by the plague and only one monk survived. He was Brother Anthony who declared that the sacred building was for males only and women were not permitted. How did Kyla persuade Brother Anthony to let the women and herself in? What problems were there with a clash of beliefs and personalities? And what of the land left behind? Kyla was determined to help and set about to do just that. This is her story.