The Challenge of the Legion

By Cedric Daurio11

In the year 53 b.C. a Roman army is defeated in Asia Minor. A legion survives and settles in China. At the present time an Italian historian travels to unveil the mystery of the fate of those 10,000 men near the Gobi Desert. In that endeavor he finds the love of a Chinese Anthropologist but also the danger of dark interests that do not want their presence in the region. The quest  becomes a personal challenge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cedric Daurio
• Release date: Jul 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386219255

Cedric Daurio11

Cedric Daurio is the pen name a novelist uses for certain types of narrative, in general historical thrillers and novels of action and adventure.The author practiced his profession as a chemical engineer until 2005 and began his literary career thereafter. He has lived in New York for years and now resides in Miami . All his works are based on extensive research, his style is stripped, clear and direct, and he does not hesitate to tackle thorny issues.C. Daurio writes in Spanish and all his books have been translated into English, they are available in print editions and as digital books.

Book preview

Index

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Epilogue

From the Author

About the Author

Books by O.L.Rigiroli

Author Coordinates

About the Publisher

Dramatis Personae

IVO BIANCHI: YOUNG historian born in Milan.

Federica Dolfin: Venetian Aristocrat.

Meryem Mahjoub: Young Moroccan with residence in Venice.

Flavius Tullius: Centurion Roman in the 1st century BC, commander of a century.

Lucius Sallustius: Signifer (standard bearer) of the century.

Zhou Lian: (Lian Zhou) Chinese anthropologist.

Andrea Bembo: Venetian Merchant of the 16th Century

Cosimo Badoer: Young Venetian aristocrat, nephew of Bembo.

Tiziana Bembo Badoer: Sister of Andrea, mother of Cosimo

Pietro Badoer: father of Cosimo, husband of Tiziana.

Bahadur: Persian warrior in the service of Andrea Bembo.

Gerel: Woman of Mongolian origin.

Ganzorig: Head of a Mongol horde.

Enkhtuya: Daughter of Ganzorig.

Chingis: Mongolian villager

Zhou Fang: Father of Lian

Zhou Ai: Mother of Lian.

Zhou Bo: Brother of Lian.

Zhou Fen: Sister of Lian

Colonel Chang: Lian's hierarchical superior

Riccardo and Anna Bianchi: Ivo's parents.

Chiara and Matteo Bianchi: Brothers of Ivo.

Enrico Maria Confalone: Noble Neapolitan, Director of the Italian Fondazione per gli Studi Storici Superiori

Colonel Huang: Member of the secret services of the Chinese government.

Prologue

<< WHAT DO YOU EXPECT to find in China? Why do those who fund you believe that it is justified to send you for several months to find traces lost in the immensity of the Chinese desert? What important keys to European history can be found there? >> And finally <>

With these questions in the midst of a restless dream Ivo suddenly sat up in the bed with his eyes wide open and some confusion in his mind. He looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table and saw that it was anyway time to get up and prepare his departure.

He rose quietly so as not to wake Federica. As in  the previous night they had made love until late hours he decided that it was preferable to let her sleep, even if she kept doing it when it was his time to leave. He could always say goodbye by means of a message to her cell phone. As he passed the lower part of the bed he saw that a foot of the woman was not covered by the sheets. Instinctively he bent down and kissed it, feeling himself a bit ridiculous for the gesture of tenderness. Then he covered the foot with the blanket.

Ivo washed his face and shaved in silence, then headed to the living room where his suitcase was already half-prepared. He finished placing the things he planned to carry considering that although his stay abroad would be prolonged and the weather variations were large, he would have problems traveling with too bulky a luggage. He finally dressed in jeans and a sports jacket and was pulling on his boots when he instinctively turned his gaze to the bedroom door. In fact a sixth sense had warned him that he was being watched. Seeing her standing in her nightgown watching him produced him a slight alarm and he stood up.

Where do you think you're going without saying goodbye to me? She asked with an air that was supposedly offended.

I did not want to ... wake you ... I ...

Are you going to travel to Asia for an indefinite period without even saying goodbye?

I ... I'm not very good at goodbyes, I never know what to say.

We had the farewell last night. Now you cannot deprive me of every woman´s duty to shed some tears when her man leaves. Saying this Federica had surrounded his waist with her arms and stood on tiptoes trying to reach his lips without succeeding. The young man had to bow his head to consummate the kiss. Guided by custom, his hands slipped inadvertently on the woman's bottom.

You'll never get on that plane in this way. She said.

In response, he slightly moved the left part of the woman's negligee, revealing a birthmark on her shoulder. It was a rather symmetrical rhombus with an approximate shape of the diamond in poker cards, and its shade was a bit darker than the rest of the woman's very white skin. She had already explained to him that it was a strange characteristic mark exclusive of members of her family that appeared sometimes skipping generations. Her maternal grandmother had had it even though her mother had not. Federica said jokingly that it was an indelible seal of nobility of her lineage.

You boast of knowing all my body so I'm sure then that you have seen this stain before She said with a feline gesture. The man kissed the mark and ran his tongue over it.

You're not going to erase it even if you try.

I want to get lucky on my trip.

Oh! Then it is an amulet, something like rubbing a rabbit's foot.

By all answer the young man moved away the hair that covered part of her face and they united in a passionate kiss.

He placed the suitcase and the backpack into the trunk of the car and closed it. Then climbed through the passenger's door and fastened the seat belt. Federica was already leaving the building, locking the door behind her. She wore a wide dress that displayed her beautiful silhouette, a real pride at fifty-five. The young man sighed and felt the temptation to abort the journey to stay with the woman of his dreams but the weight of all the preparations made him keep to the fulfillment of the plan. He knew that in China they were waiting for him two days later. Anyway he was counting on Federica to be expecting his return since she too was madly in love with him.

Go now to China, said the woman. I do not ask you to remain faithful to me because I know you will not, but I am sure that at the end of the road you will return to me.

PASSING THROUGH THE glass door to perform the pre-shipment formalities, Ivo turned to look at her for the last time until his return, stipulated on an imprecise date but not less than six months. Federica's eyes were drawn to the side, no doubt trying to hide her tears. The irresistibly romantic scene produced a warm feeling inside Ivo.

When she saw that the last passengers, almost all Asian, disappeared behind the gates guarded by two policemen, Federica slowly started the return to the parking lot. She knew perfectly well that a part of her heart was going with the young man and anticipated that she would feel lonely again, something that terrified her. Federica had met Ivo immediately after a very complicated divorce and he had immediately filled her life with light. The woman had had two husbands and several lovers before, but she had only known romantic love with Ivo. Full of apprehension, she started the car.

In the two hours time before embarkation Ivo absent-mindedly walked by the free-shops, when suddenly a thought came to his mind. He pulled out his cell phone and looked for a number in its memory. After a few seconds he heard a feminine voice, somewhat childish and with a strong foreign accent.

Hi, Meryam. It´s me, Ivo. The young man explained the reasons for his call from the airport, including the details of his trip to China.

And you call me all of a sudden; to tell me you're going to China for a long time? The girl's tone showed real anger. Ivo had prepared a series of explanations that he knew beforehand would anyway sound empty. A little calmer, the girl replied resignedly.

Surely with your taste for exotic women in the East you will satisfy your appetites.

None of that, I will remain faithful to you and carry you into my memory.

What fidelity are you talking about, when you live with your Marquise or Countess? The tone was again recriminatory and jealous.

She has no title of nobility. Federica only belongs to an ancient family.

No older than mine, only I know nothing about it.

Already aboard the Lufthansa plane that would take him to Beijing after two stopovers and a little more than 17 hours, Ivo Bianchi allowed his nervous system to slacken, abandoning the attitude of permanent alert and the consequent anxiety that the international trips produced to him.

With a glass of red wine on the table in his seat his mind naturally returned to review the latest developments in his life and those in perspective. His relationship with Federica was already five years old, when she was fifty and he was twenty-three. The woman was an offspring of an old family of the Venetian patriciate, divorced twice and with a daughter of approximately the age of the young man whom she seldom saw.

After finishing his studies of history in the University Ivo had entered to work in a Foundation of historical and heraldic studies of the Veneto, for which he had to move of its native Milan. There he had met Federica who was divorcing her last husband and the infatuation had been mutual and instantaneous. The woman was a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation and had a preponderant role in it, since the rest of the vowels were elderly people who lived scattered in the north of Italy.

Apart from romantic love and companionship, Federica and he had explored all the possibilities of eroticism and neither had sexual fantasies they had not satisfied. Ivo knew every intimate corner of her body as few men know their partners, and the woman could say the same.

Although Federica had remained faithful to him, she had tolerated the boy's escapades with Meryem, the young Moroccan with whom he had a sporadic but torrid relationship. For Ivo, the relationship with Federica was a placid brook that ran in the forest, while the one he had with Meryem resembled more a volcano.

When two months earlier the president of the Foundation had brought the proposal of his trip to the consideration of the Governing Board Federica had fervently supported it and finally had obtained its approval. It was the President, a knight of the Order of Malta who had promoted the appointment of