Prologue
23rd August, 79AD, Herculaneum
The gods were angry. Smoke had been rising from Vesuvius for a week now and the air was thick with the smell of sulphur. The high priest had been making offerings all day and through the night to no avail. Callista stood by the altar with the pure white dove in her hands. She could feel the poor creature's heart fluttering in its chest. It wanted to be away from that place, just as she did. Every living creature that could flee the town had already done so. The birds had flown days ago. Even the rats had packed up and gone.
Only a few stubborn people remained, along with the animals that couldn't escape their bonds. The horses and the dogs, that whinnied and howled all day, tried so hard to let their owners know it was time to leave. But the people were stupid. They couldn't leave their material possession behind. They had houses to protect, stores full of grain and wine. If they couldn't take that with them, they weren't going anywhere.
The priest began yet another incantation. The words that had seemed so magical to Callista when she first heard them as a small girl now seemed pathetic and fearful. Isis had abandoned them. To Callista that was clear. No amount of chanting was going to forestall the disaster that was brewing just out at sea. Callista could feel it in every part of her body. She'd tried to tell the priest. She'd begged him to let his acolytes gather up the sacred icons and hurry to safety inland. He'd always listened to her before, but now he was deaf to her pleas.
The ritual was reaching its climax. Callista wanted to scream that it was wrong. Isis did not demand blood sacrifices. Even at a time like this. To kill the tiny creature which panicked in her hands would only enrage the angry goddess and bring down more ash upon their heads. But the priest was determined. He turned towards Callista. His eyes were wide with passion. In one hand he held the sharpened dagger.
'Give me the dove,' he said.
Callista did not move. She gripped the dove a little more tightly.
'Give me the dove,' the priest repeated.
Callista had never defied him so openly before.
'The dove.'
With one swift movement, Callista raised her hands and released the terrified dove into the gritty black air. For a moment, it seemed to hang there in the sky, as though it had forgotten how to fly, but then it unfurled its beautiful wings and beat its way to the open temple door.
The assembled Isis worshippers stared after the dove in panic and desperation. The priest bellowed in fury. Two guards grabbed Callista by the arms.
'You have doomed the city,' the high priest told her. 'Isis will have her revenge.'
'Isis has forsaken us,' Callista told him. 'Grab your money and your goat, old man. It's time for us to go.'
But Callista was going nowhere. The priest intoned her punishment. She was to be locked in a cell with a volcano view.
Chapter One
August, 2013
'This is the life.'
That's what Kelly told herself as she boarded the Sunseeker in Naples. Who would have thought that Kelly, the little girl from Gloucester, would end up holidaying on a yacht like this?
Tony was very proud of his new toy, which he'd bought on a whim at the London Boat Fair at the beginning of the year. How he'd enjoyed that moment. He was sure the Sunseeker rep thought he was a joker, come to waste everyone's time. What pleasure he'd got from seeing the jerk come over all obsequious when he realised that Tony wasn't a time-waster after all and his money was as good as any Russian oligarch's.
