‘A woman! The Vortigern was a woman! You – you murdering, conniving bitch – are a woman!’

‘What of it, Aureliana? So are you!’

‘Yes I am. And proud of it! I am as good as any man, and better than most!’

The Queen of the West Britons looked around the room. She took off her over tunic and threw it down at her defeated opponent’s feet.

‘Easy for you, perhaps, Aureliana; less easy for me – much less easy. A female Vortigern would have commanded little respect, especially if people had found out my past as the daughter of Magnus Maximus, especially when I set out to avenge his betrayal and murder and claim what was rightfully his – and now is rightfully mine!’

‘And that is’, asked Aetius and Severian...

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