Much to his surprise, Severianus was enjoying himself. He had never liked the Vortigern, and only really tolerated the whiney man because, for all his faults, he was Agricola’s commanding officer, and Agricola was still both his son and the right sort of Christian, in as far as the one true faith had anything to do with it. The Bishop of Eboracum grimaced to himself as he thought of the Vortigern as ‘commanding officer’ of the British Army. How had a bureaucrat like that got to the top? Yes, he could hold a gladius and a scutum when he had to, but it seemed to Severianus that the Vortigern was far more at home holding a stilus in his hand. Come to think of it, had there been a single battle where the Vortigern had been on the front line? It was Agricola who had led the...

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