What Loyalty Demands (Light in the Empire)

By Carol Ashby

Description:

What Loyalty Demands: a Roman-era adventure set in Britain that’s filled with dangerous choices, opposing loyalties, unlikely friendships, and the power of love to change everything.

When simmering unrest becomes open rebellion, do you do what’s right or what loyalty demands?

Scorned by his family since birth, Rogatus is a loner who relies on no one. He only needs two more years as a tribune, and he’ll have earned enough that the future he wants is assured, no matter what his father does to him. But as he begins his final command in Britannia, he meets the people who might end his loneliness...or his life.

With a Roman mother and British centurion father, Narina is at home in both tribal and Roman worlds. As the only Christian, she’s the peacemaker between her Roman brothers and British cousins. Cousin Sulio hates most Romans, but he loves her like a sister. When Rogatus brings his cavalrymen to their town, their chieftain wants Sulio to befriend the tribune to learn what the Romans are up to. As the tribune’s interest in Narina grows, Sulio wants to quench that before she gets hurt. But how can he do both?

When unrest becomes rebellion, old loyalties create mortal enemies. Narina has God to guide her, but her Roman friend and British cousin aren’t Christians. How can she get two strong men, who seem destined to be enemies, to choose life over death before it’s too late?

Book Takeaway:

When opposing loyalties breed hostility between people, someone who loves God and is friends with both can be the peacemaker that Jesus calls us to be. Our calling is to keep sharing the truth and loving them, and God can use us to reach and reconcile people who would otherwise remain enemies.

Why the author wrote this book:

In the Light in the Empire series, I’ve been writing stories set in different provinces of the Roman Empire at a time when it was illegal to be a Christian and becoming one could cost you everything. What Loyalty Demands is the first one set in Roman Britain, a province with a constant risk of rebellion that kept three legions there for most of its almost 400 year history. While researching the history of Britannia, I learned of a major rebellion between late AD 117 and 119 when one emperor (Trajan) died and another (Hadrian) took over. Most of one legion was killed before it was put down. So, I decided to write a story about a Christian woman who was part Roman and part Brigantian who tried to reconcile people whose loyalties were to tribe or emperor as the rebellion broke out. It reminded me of the intense political divisions we see today and how God can turn hostility into friendship despite our differences.