There. Open treason.
I knew what he was saying. I knew what he wanted.
‘The rebels need leadership, Corvus. Leadership, and treasure. You can give them both.’
The legion’s coffers. I felt as though they were weighing on my chest as I answered. ‘I can’t turn against my brothers.’
That bastard. He almost smiled. He almost fucking smiled, and I did not hate him for it. ‘Which brothers do you have left, my friend?’
And he was right.
Arminius left me, then. He left me with a pat on my shoulder and my eyes on a bloodied eagle. All about me was death, and betrayal. I had thought that my life’s hopes died in the mountains, but now I realized that they lay butchered in my adolescence. Butchered by the one person I had thought I could trust. Could I live with myself if I did not avenge Beatha’s murder? Would she forgive me if I did?
‘Enough!’ I screamed from the top of the wall, my words caught and dying in the stone of the mountain. ‘Enough,’ I pleaded.
No more questions. No more thoughts. Arminius was right. I had no brothers, only misery, and it was time to take action. Deceived by my empire, my family and my greatest friend, what other choice was there for me? What hope of redemption?
None.
None save for the sword, and knowing that I could never set eyes on Marcus again, I knew that there was only one choice left to me.
I would leave the Eighth.
I would turn against my empire.
I would become a traitor.
Author’s Note
Legion is the first book that I’ve self-published, and it felt right that this new beginning should take us to the start of Corvus’s own journey, before he was found in a German forest, and given the name Felix.
In AD 6, the famed Tiberius was poised to launch a huge invasion across the Danube and into the lands of the Marcomanni. To aid him, the local chieftains of the Roman-controlled Illyricum were ordered to raise large numbers of levies to serve as auxiliaries. (Illyricum was later to be split into the provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia, but I’ve used these later titles for simplicity’s sake throughout the series.)
As described in this novel, this impressive force raised for Rome turned against its ‘master’ at their marshalling grounds, putting a huge enemy army at Tiberius’s back. It would force Rome to call off the invasion across the Danube, and instead the Empire faced brutal conflict within its borders.
Soon after declaring their intentions, the rebel leaders broke their force into three main contingents, with one fighting in their home territories, a second invading the Roman province of Macedonia, and a third attempting to invade Italy. It’s this final contingent that Corvus and his comrades do battle against in the valley.
According to the Roman historian Velleius Paterculus, who took part in the war as a cavalry officer, half of a Roman legion was surrounded by twenty thousand of the enemy, but somehow defeated them. I’ve let my imagination fill in the blanks on how that happened. It’s often the case that when a smaller number rout their enemy then some kind of trickery or unusual tactics are involved. Given how excellent the Roman soldiers were, there is always the possibility that the outnumbered legionaries simply butchered the rebels in open battle, but I like to think that there was more to it than that. I doubt that we’ll ever know, as there is very little evidence from this period, and that which does exist must be looked at with a critical eye; propaganda and ‘fake news’ are not modern inventions, and many of the ‘contemporary’ sources of the period were written with political ambition in mind, often at a great distance from – and years after – the events that they chronicled.
Regardless, it’s likely that the half-legion who survived the battle against such heavy odds were then sent to the coast, where Roman settlements were coming under siege. It makes sense to me that in doing so they’d need to protect their supply lines, and the way to do that would be by going into the mountains and taking the fight to the enemy. It certainly seems to be the case that the rebels tried to avoid pitched battles after that initial blood-letting, and it is established that the campaign largely descended into what we would refer to today as guerrilla warfare.
As I have said before, I am a storyteller, not a historian, and you should take what I write with a grain of salt. I am, after all, a soldier, and we never let the facts get in the way of a good tale. I write historical fiction, and I write it for an audience in the twenty-first century. For me, the story comes first, and I believe that is best served with prose and dialogue that is more relatable to the reader. I believe that the less someone is taken out of the moment by unfamiliar words and patterns of language, the more they can engage with the emotion on the page. I probably get the balance wrong more often than not, but this is what I strive for.
Corvus and his comrades are fictional characters, but if studying and serving with soldiers has taught me anything, it is that the character of the warrior transcends time.
Legion is chronologically the first book in my series about Corvus/Felix, and it takes us to the point where we first met him in Blood Forest (which has since been relaunched under the title Ambush). I love writing this series, and so long as you want to read it I will keep telling the tale, until it reaches its conclusion.
With the entire region aflame in open rebellion, and Corvus betrayed by the one friend he had left, there is still a lot more blood to shed.
Acknowledgements
Although I have self-published this book, I would still like to offer great thanks to the team at Penguin who worked with me on Blood Forest (Ambush) and Siege. Without them there would be no series. Thanks also to the publishers who have made Corvus’s story available in several other languages.
Nothing gets done without the support of my family and friends, and my agent Rowan Lawton. That is also true of the historians who give me the skeletons of my stories through their hard work and research.
Thank you to my wonderful cover designer and copy editor, who gave Legion its professional polish. Finally, thanks to you, the reader, for encouraging me to continue this series. Reading a book is a commitment of your most precious asset, time, and I hope that I’ve repaid your trust.