A grieving Roman recruit, manipulated into swearing a deadly oath, accidentally saves his intended targets, forcing him to confront the corrupt general who betrayed him.

SYNOPSIS:

Victor Ligustus, a grieving survivor of Vesuvius, joins the Roman army in Britannia seeking purpose and escape. Thrust into a brutal legion rife with cruelty, violence, and political ambition, he’s bullied, isolated, and underestimated. His only connection is with Planta, a strange, low-ranking stable boy with murky ties to power.

When Planta is found murdered, Victor is manipulated by General Lucullus into swearing a sacred oath to eliminate two officers, Dexippus and Atticus. Believing he is serving justice, Victor prepares for revenge. But when he accidentally saves both men during a chaotic battle, Lucullus turns on him.

Despite the danger, Victor begins to rise through the ranks. He earns the respect of hardened barbarian auxiliaries like the Tungrians and the fierce warrior Cativolcus. He also finds brief intimacy with Metia, a blind Caledonian woman. When she is killed in a supposed bandit attack, Victor lashes out in a savage act of vengeance.

Only later does he learn the truth. Planta had been part of a smuggling operation under Lucullus’s protection. Metia’s killers were scapegoats. Atticus was not corrupt. Victor has been used as a weapon all along.

As Lucullus rewrites the war’s outcome for his own gain, Victor is paraded as a hero, his medals built on falsehoods. The empire buries the truth under ceremony and spin. Betrayed and disillusioned, Victor finally fulfils the oath he swore, not for glory, but to confront the rot at Rome’s core.