Legion from the Shadows

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    A Romanophile who doesn’t believe the Empire has fallen; who has been writing fantasy tales of Classical Rome these past ten years; and who furnished the historical data for this novel:

    Noli elicere quid deponi nequitur…

EPIGRAPHS

    Any man may look lightly into heaven, to the highest star; but who dares require of the bowels of Earth their abysmal secrets?

    Letter from Persil Mandifer: Manly Wade Wellman, Fearful Rock

    Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.

    Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred: H. P. Lovecraft, The Festival

PROLOGUE

    The sun that morning had shone sullen red through the mists that swirled above the ridges and moors. Now the sun that sank beneath the Highlands’ jagged rim burned a deeper red-as red as the blood that clotted across the trampled heath below. In the lengthening shadow fifteen thousand lay slain-skin-clad savage and armored legionary, Pict and Roman-their hacked and skewered bodies strewn wherever they fell.

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