Monsters

By W Young

Fresh from carrying out a sensitive imperial mission Centurion Aulus Silus is offered a place in the emperor’s private guard. The day before the initiation ceremony Aulus is knocked out and abducted. He wakes in a dungeon to be confronted by the father he believed dead. There his father warns Aulus that the emperor is possessed and he needs his help to kill him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: W Young
• Release date: Jul 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005171889

W Young

W Young was born in Auckland, New Zealand and currently resides there with their family.

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Monsters

By W Young

Copyright 2021 W Young

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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The battered leather bag bumped against Aulus’s leg. An uneasy reminder of what lay inside.

Well? Vibius asked, an eager look on his face. Did you get it?

He patted the bag. I wouldn’t have returned from Gaul if I hadn’t.

Ha! laughed Vibius. You don’t like that do you?

Vibius, an old army friend always had an uncanny ability to ascertain Aulus’s thoughts. As he pushed his way past the hordes of street hawkers and shoppers on Rome’s late afternoon streets Aulus lowered his voice. I thought it . . . unusual. He has a reputation for disliking unnecessary bloodshed. Or he did.

Vibius slapped him on the back. The emperor’s matured, but he’s good to his friends. He tapped his finely crafted black armour. Especially those in his private guard.

A passing traveller gave them a wary look. Vibius grabbed the man and rammed him against a wall. Enjoy our conversation?

The man shrank under Vibius’s gaze. I heard nothing.

Let’s try that again. Vibius punched him in the stomach.

The man bent over in paint, gasping for breath.

Vibius looked about to thump him again when Aulus caught his hand. That’s enough!

Scowling, Vibius tossed the man aside. Run, pleb! The man lurched away clutching his stomach.

Aulus studied his friend. Vibius was a bear of a man with the aggression to match, but he normally kept that under control away from battle. Was that necessary?

The emperor’s enemies are everywhere, and they fear men in his personal guard or, he smiled. Those to be inducted.

Aulus’s heart raced; everything he’d been working for this past year was