Month: January 2019

bureaucratic shorthand. And he could feel something else, something dark and bitter rising in his chest. He’d given Rome everything. His youth, his health, his father’s legacy. He’d built an intelligence network from nothing, trained men who could move like ghosts through enemy territory, created …

Marcus looked at the map, at the careful notations he’d made, the intelligence his men had died to gather. He thought of Decimus, who’d spent three weeks in a Pictish village pretending to be a trader, sleeping in a barn and eating scraps, just to …

anything like this. The intelligence suggests a coordinated assault—multiple fronts, simultaneous attacks designed to overwhelm our defenses.” The room fell silent except for the crackle of the brazier and the distant sound of soldiers drilling in the fort’s courtyard. Marcus could feel his heart beating …

“Changed how?” Castor’s finger traced the line of the Wall on the map, barely glancing at the territory beyond it. Marcus took a breath. This was the moment. He’d rehearsed this briefing a dozen times in his mind, weighing each word, anticipating objections. The Areani …

PROLOGUE FORT SEGEDUNUM, HADRIAN’S WALL BRITANNIA SUPERIOR, ROMAN EMPIRE MARCH, 367 AD The wind came off the northern hills like the breath of some ancient god, cold and relentless, carrying with it the scent of heather and distant rain. Centurion Marcus Corvus stood at the …