With the failure by Sigfred and his Viking army to take Paris, Yanna and her two surviving companions, each of them new mothers, escape to Flanders and Saint-Omer. Yanna, eager to rectify her error in choosing not to leave with her love and the father of their son upon his elevation to Thegn, takes a ship bound for Wessex. The ship is intercepted by the Dane Einarr Thorsten, who, after his failed attempt to capture King Alfred at Stourmouth, had fled the Danelaw to become part of Sigfred's army outside Paris. However, he leaves before Sigfred's own departure after failing to take the city, and it is only through a quirk of fate that, after capturing the ship she is aboard, he recognizes the arm ring that, having once given it to Titus the Berserker as a token of friendship, Yanna had used as payment for passage to Wessex.
Taking Yanna prisoner, but under the guise of helping her reunite with her love, Einarr baits a trap for Titus by sending a provocative ransom letter, demanding that Titus surrender himself to Einarr. His purpose is to save himself from Sigfred's wrath, the Norse leader having discovered that Einarr had aided Titus during the assault on Boulogne-Sur-Mer, when Titus had been serving Count Baldwin II, and for which Sigfred is demanding either a massive payment...or the head of Titus the Berserker, slayer of Sigfred's son.
Einarr's plan to lure Titus from Saxon lands is successful, but as he quickly learns, when wagering against this Saxon Thegn, the best laid plans are subject to the whims of Fate.
Sprache
Dateigröße
ISBN-13
978-1-941226-67-4 (9781941226674)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
R.W. Peake wrote his first novel when he was 10.
He published his first novel when he was 50.
Obviously, a lot happened in between, including a career as a "grunt" in the Marine Corps, another career as a software executive, a stint as a semi-professional cyclist, and becoming a dad.
But, through it all, there was one constant: his fascination with history, which led him back to school in his 30s to earn a degree in History from the Honors College at the University of Houston.
One morning years later, R.W. was listening to Caesar's Commentaries while he was on his morning commute to a job he hated. A specific passage about Caesar's men digging a 17 mile ditch between Lake Geneva and the Jura Mountains suddenly jumped out at him.
He was reminded of his own first job at 13 digging a ditch in Hardin, Texas. For the rest of the drive that morning, he daydreamed about what life must have been like not for the Caesars of the world, but for the everyday people who were doing the fighting and dying for Rome, and the idea for Marching with Caesar was born.
Not too long after that, he quit that job, moved into a trailer halfway across the country, and devoted the next four years to researching and writing the first installments of Marching with Caesar.
Some of his research methods-like hiking several miles around Big Bend National Park in the heat of summer wearing a suit of chainmail and carrying a sword so he would know what it felt like to be a Roman legionary-were a bit unconventional and made his friends and family question his sanity.
But such was his commitment to bringing these stories to life for his readers with as much detail and accuracy as possible.
Even as his catalog continues to grow, he still brings that passion to every story he tells.
He has moved out of the trailer, but he still lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington with his Yellow Lab, Titus Pomponius Pullus and his rescue dog, Peach.
