Had it not been for the pack of dogs nipping at her heels, Claudia Seferius would never have ventured into the mean backstreets of Rome. And thus would never have found the abandoned little boy called Jovi...

With the Empire in crisis, it certainly isn’t a safe time for either a rich young widow or a weeping child to be out after dark, for five slave girls have been brutally murdered by a killer who strikes only on market day.

The victims are linked by the dragon tattoo they each wear on their arms, and which marks them out as the 'Children of Arbil'. But Arbil is no loving father—as Claudia is about to find out...