the mark of the horse lord by rosemary sutcliff

In the Cave of the Hunter in the north of Earra-Ghyl, Gault presents Phaedrus to his five fellow-conspirators, who agree to the plan. Phaedrus crosses Valentia and the Northern Wall disguised as one of Sinnoch's horse-handlers, where he meets Titus Hilarion, a Roman captain who tempts him to join the Frontier Scouts, but Phaedrus has little liking for the Romans' depopulated no man's land (5). Phaedrus is tattooed with the forehead mark of the Horse Lord, and Midir spends the next month teaching him everything about his life before the coup (4). Phaedrus agrees to take his vengeance for him (3). Phaedrus is inclined to refuse, until they call in Midir himself, now a blinded craftsman in a Roman city.

Sinnoch and his partner Gault the Strong, a northern tribesman, offer Phaedrus a new purpose in life: to pose as their lost king Midir of the Dalriadain, whom he strongly resembles, in their planned uprising against Liadhan, the queen who usurped him seven years ago.

Phaedrus is bailed out of jail by a merchant named Sinnoch. A free man for the first time, he is released to wander the streets of Corstopitum, falls in with a party of young drinkers, and is arrested when they get in a fight with the Watch (2). Phaedrus, the slave son of a Greek merchant and his British housekeeper, kills his only friend and wins his Wooden Foil as the last man standing in the games given by the new governor of Britain (1).

2.1 Continuity with The Eagle of the Ninth.

The mark of the horse lord by rosemary sutcliff