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Enemies No More: a story of love, loss and rescue
"Countless times we had faced death in battle. Our troops were often outnumbered, our leaders weak, the enemy fearsome, the weather foul, the footing treacherous. Death was always about to call our name. But in those battles, we depended upon the person next to us to protect us. Our legion's strength and valor would save us. The battlefield was a circumscribed world far from Rome and if we fell, no one in our families would be deprived of life, only us.
"Now the battlefield was a stone's throw from our homes and if we fell, our families went down also....I thought how Julia had once saved Lucius and now was about to destroy him with her becoming a follower of that Jewish carpenter. As I drank the wine, I grew more certain this battle would be one we should not expect to survive. We were in a land with no signposts, no scouts to tell us the way ahead. We were alone. All was unseen, as dark as the wine I drank, undiluted and overwhelming my senses.
"Then, as the light faded and evening came on, I looked out at the street and saw a black horse being lead down the street by the arbor. For a moment, I thought the horse that died on the road was alive. It stopped and turned and looked at me. Its eyes glowed ruby in the twilight. Its nostrils flared as it took in my smell and calculated my death. Its handler was familiar. In the shadows, he turned to see what the horse was regarding. It was the tax collector from the road. He looked at me and perhaps smiled, a small gesture, serpentine in the gathering shadows. The horse looked fixedly, unmoving, assessing. Then its lips moved back from its teeth. They shone in the dusk and seemed a smile. Finally, the horse or the man snorted and they moved on, the man's blood red hand holding the bridle.
"In the cold, I shuddered. I drank more deeply, draining another tankard. My thoughts turned back to Nero's garden and in gathering shadows, as the tavern owner went about lighting torches, I thought I saw faces in the fires, as the torches became flaming crosses, their victims I knew all too well. Their burning mouths moved, crying out, for rescue"
Can one warrior defeat an empire? The year is 68. The Roman Empire teeters on chaos as civil war looms. Nero pursues the followers of the one called Christ while restless legions plan revolt. Lucius, the disillusioned warrior, and Tychon, his crippled brother, leave the battlefields of Judea on a quest to rescue Lucius' wife from Nero's murderous rampage. Lucius arrests scores of Christians, and their leaders, to deliver them to Nero's fiery crucifixions, before his wife can be discovered as a convert to this new faith. Born into one of Rome's most distinguished and wealthy families, Lucius has fought for the Empire on the cold and bloody battlefields of Britannia and Gaul and int the barren desert of Judea. Now he must fight that same Empire as it seeks to imprison and kill his wife. She saved his life one deadly summer; now he will save her or die trying. Amid the storms and outbreak of civil war that erupt during his journey, Lucius begins to question if he can surrender these kindly people to certain death. And can his brother's growing love for one of the young women in chains survive the violence ahead? From the sunny cities of Ephesus and Corinth to the filthy, treacherous streets of Rome, long buried hatreds resurface and vie with new found hope and love for each of the brothers. At Rome, Lucius learns he is not just the pursuer but also the pursued. An infamous figure from the past seeks his death, even as his Christian prisoners seek his redemption. The battle is underway, for his family and for his soul.
"Now the battlefield was a stone's throw from our homes and if we fell, our families went down also....I thought how Julia had once saved Lucius and now was about to destroy him with her becoming a follower of that Jewish carpenter. As I drank the wine, I grew more certain this battle would be one we should not expect to survive. We were in a land with no signposts, no scouts to tell us the way ahead. We were alone. All was unseen, as dark as the wine I drank, undiluted and overwhelming my senses.
"Then, as the light faded and evening came on, I looked out at the street and saw a black horse being lead down the street by the arbor. For a moment, I thought the horse that died on the road was alive. It stopped and turned and looked at me. Its eyes glowed ruby in the twilight. Its nostrils flared as it took in my smell and calculated my death. Its handler was familiar. In the shadows, he turned to see what the horse was regarding. It was the tax collector from the road. He looked at me and perhaps smiled, a small gesture, serpentine in the gathering shadows. The horse looked fixedly, unmoving, assessing. Then its lips moved back from its teeth. They shone in the dusk and seemed a smile. Finally, the horse or the man snorted and they moved on, the man's blood red hand holding the bridle.
"In the cold, I shuddered. I drank more deeply, draining another tankard. My thoughts turned back to Nero's garden and in gathering shadows, as the tavern owner went about lighting torches, I thought I saw faces in the fires, as the torches became flaming crosses, their victims I knew all too well. Their burning mouths moved, crying out, for rescue"
Can one warrior defeat an empire? The year is 68. The Roman Empire teeters on chaos as civil war looms. Nero pursues the followers of the one called Christ while restless legions plan revolt. Lucius, the disillusioned warrior, and Tychon, his crippled brother, leave the battlefields of Judea on a quest to rescue Lucius' wife from Nero's murderous rampage. Lucius arrests scores of Christians, and their leaders, to deliver them to Nero's fiery crucifixions, before his wife can be discovered as a convert to this new faith. Born into one of Rome's most distinguished and wealthy families, Lucius has fought for the Empire on the cold and bloody battlefields of Britannia and Gaul and int the barren desert of Judea. Now he must fight that same Empire as it seeks to imprison and kill his wife. She saved his life one deadly summer; now he will save her or die trying. Amid the storms and outbreak of civil war that erupt during his journey, Lucius begins to question if he can surrender these kindly people to certain death. And can his brother's growing love for one of the young women in chains survive the violence ahead? From the sunny cities of Ephesus and Corinth to the filthy, treacherous streets of Rome, long buried hatreds resurface and vie with new found hope and love for each of the brothers. At Rome, Lucius learns he is not just the pursuer but also the pursued. An infamous figure from the past seeks his death, even as his Christian prisoners seek his redemption. The battle is underway, for his family and for his soul.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 10, 2017
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December 21, 2020
Ancient Rome, intrigue, and the roots of Christianity
A fascinating tale that takes the reader back to experience love and loss, debauchery and intrigue in ancient Rome through the prism of one man 's mind and against the backdrop of evolving early Christianity. Well done!
A fascinating tale that takes the reader back to experience love and loss, debauchery and intrigue in ancient Rome through the prism of one man 's mind and against the backdrop of evolving early Christianity. Well done!
Displaying 1 of 1 review