1586

Scotland, 1586. A queen in chains. A stone that crowns kings. And three young people who will risk everything to bring it home.

For eighteen years Mary, Queen of Scots, has been the prisoner of her cousin, Elizabeth I. Now the net is closing. In London, Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's spymaster, reads every secret letter that leaves Mary's prison. In a smoky back room by Temple Bar, the young and reckless Anthonie Babington plots to set her free - and to kill Elizabeth.

Far to the north, a market day in the Scottish Borders ends in fire and blood as English soldiers fall upon the town. Out of the smoke, Ben and Glen, two boys from Cerniehurst Castle, meet Loch - a young archer with a stiletto, a buried grief and a secret no one must discover.

Hunted by soldiers, wolves and men who kill for gold, the three are drawn south into the heart of the Babington Plot. There they are given a task that sounds like madness: to steal the Stone of Destiny from beneath the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey and carry it home to Scotland.

A real mystery, carved in stone

In 2023, scientists scanning the real Stone of Destiny found faint Roman numerals on it: XXXV. No one knows who carved them, or why. 1586 - Stone of Destiny offers an answer. The trail leads back to Genesis 35 and Jacob's pillar of stone at Bethel, and forward to a young king not yet crowned in England: the sixth of his name.

440 years on

On 8 February 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringhay Castle. This novel is published before 8 February 2027 to mark the 440th anniversary of her death.

A fast-paced historical thriller of loyalty, betrayal and first love, where real history - the Babington Plot, Walsingham's cipher war, Mary's trial - meets Scotland's oldest legend.

The stone is waiting. But not for everyone.

Coming next: The Sixth King - as Scotland burns its witches, the road leads to Westminster Abbey and the coronation of James I in 1603.