Just because someone seemed kind, didn’t mean they could be trusted.

“Kids don’t run away from homes because they’re poor, they run away because they need to escape something. Rich kids can need to escape, too.

Sofia turned the page in her book, trying to stay focused on the fictional lives it contained inside. In the windowless basement, there was rarely any indication that the outside world existed. No mingling of voices, no whoosh of passing trucks or honking of cars, just the occasional hum and rattle of the exposed pipes. Until now.

After all that had happened to her, all she’d just recently experienced—kidnapping, rape, beatings, having her virginity stolen—Sofia didn’t know for sure that Emma had been a virgin, but it seemed likely —after all that, the girl appeared most shocked about having to relieve herself in a bucket.

Only when she was immersed in a book was she able to completely forget about her circumstances.

“You want the girl back. But you might not find her if someone with power is thwarting your efforts. So, you improvise until you figure out who to trust. Basically, until you know who you can trust, you trust no one.”

His forced jovial attitude had disappeared. Some things were harder to pretend through than others.

“I have to pee first, or I might wet myself. And no one here tonight has asked for that . . . yet.” She smirked to hide her hatred.

“Can’t trust rich people. They’re the best liars. They’re not worried because they always get away with it. That’s what makes them lie so good.”

Things aren’t always what they appear to be. And neither are people.

The Chronicles of Iona: Exile tells the story of the Irish monk and Scottish warrior, Saint Columba and Aedan mac Gabran, who would band together to lay the foundation of the nation of Scotland.  They were a real-life 6th-century Merlin and King Arthur and their story has never been told.

Together, this unlikely pair travels the breadth of a divided realm, each in search of his own kind of unity.  Their path is fraught with blood feuds, lost love, treachery, dark gods and monsters, but also with miracles and valor.  Beset on all sides, their only hope is to become allies—and to forge a daring alliance with the pagan Picts.

How Columba overcame exile and a crisis of faith to found the famous monastery of Iona (one of the greatest centers of learning in Dark Age Europe) and, from it, the Celtic Church in the British Isles; and how Aedan avenged his father’s death and became, against all odds, the progenitor of Scottish kings and the greatest warlord of his age, begins here.

For both, what begins as a personal imperative becomes a series of events that lead to the foundation of Iona and the kingdom of Scotland—events that literally change the world.