Book Review: Tarnished Empire

Title: Tarnished Empire
Author: Danielle L. Jensen
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

What It’s about: Marcus, the legates of the 37th watches as medics deal with the wounded. Reacher, the medic in the 37th tells him that nothing can be done to save them, as the gas that the rebels of Hydrilla used in the tunnels were very poisonous. Marcus is called to the command tent by Hostus, the legates of the 29th legion, and enters along with Felix, Marcus’s second in command, and Agrippa, his Primus. Inside, the tent is a wreck, having been destroyed by Grypus, the proconsul, who continues throwing his tantrum about Hydrilla not being captured, and wrecking the tent.

He yells both at Hostus and Marcus for their failure and asks Marcus what they should do, since he is the prodigy of Lescendor. Marcus advises that they starve the people of Hydrilla through the blockade they have going. Grypus punches him and tells Hostus, he wants them to be in charge of Hydrilla by winter. Marcus gets the command from Hostus to go to the follower’s camp to see to them.

Agrippa, once they step out of the command tent, makes fun of Grypus for punching like an old lady, and gets an escort for all there of them to the follower’s camp. They walk to, around and from the follower’s camp, which is really full of people who follow the lions and provide services that the men themselves don’t do. Except they have a lot of coin and not a lot of food because all the provisions go to the legionnaires. During the walk, they come across a woman carrying buckets of water who isn’t watching where she’s going and collides with Marcus. Agrippa puts himself between them in case she tries to stab Marcus. Agrippa finds her to be pretty–exceptionally so that once they are each on their way, he cannot help stop talking about her. When they return back to camp and he is rejoined by Miki and Quintus, who he had sent as an escort for Felix when Marcus gave the order to move bodies and get the medical teams for healing the folks in the follower’s camp, he suggests they go do laundry.

Silvara mentally castigates herself for shaking in front of the legionnaires. She meets with Hector and another female, both rebel leaders, and tells them that nothing happened. The female reminds her that time is running out–including for her own father and brother–because they are besieged by the legionnaires and would starve out. They have been sending up smoke signals to get other rebels to help and attack the legionnaires from the back, but there are too many of the legionnaires, so they’ve resorted to other tactics. The female rebel leader tells Silvara that she was talking to Agrippa and he’s a killer, so even their own scouts stay away.

Silvara goes to the river to refill buckets, and starts getting swept away when someone grabs her by the waist and pulls her back. Agrippa introduces himself to Silvara, along with Miki and Quintus, and she introduces herself. He fills up the water buckets and offers to take them for her. When she finally agrees, the four walk through camp to the launderesses tent. She goes in and Agrippa follows, after telling Miki and Quintus to go ahead without him. Agrippa strips and pays Agnes to wash his clothes for him. He then stands around naked when the Primus of the 29th comes in and they begin fighting. Miki and Quints come back and join the brawl, while the ladies in the laundry push Silvara out of view from the 29th’s primus, who already made suggestive comments towards her.

Marcus gets called to the scene and while he is very happy that his men came out on top, he does not want to outwardly show it. Hostus comes in and yells at his men, and Carmo–Hostus’s second is forced to explain that Agrippa made comments about him not wiping his own ass. The boys get three lashes each, as required by legion law.

Agrippa does meet with Silvara at the launderesses tent, and Agnes is there. She put some concoction that helps Agrippa’s pain and he reveals to Silvara that he and Marcus were competitors in school, which Carina, the female rebel leader, wants to use to their benefit. Agrippa had to go because Yaro had come in saying that the 29th was chasing them around the follower’s camp.

Marcus is required to go to Melitene by Grypus to keep Grypus’s wife from coming to camp. At Felix’s recommendation and urging, he takes Agrippa with him and the tension between them is palpable. Agrippa breaks it with a joke about farting and whether it could be smelled on the other end of the Xenither stem. They manage to convince Grypus’s wife to stay back with Agrippa’s quick thinking–he pretends to be ill, so Marcus tells her that there is an illness going around camp. On their way back, Marcus tells Agrippa that he’s proud of him for standing up for the launderess–even though he cannot publicly come out and say that. But he also tells Agrippa to stay away from the girl.

Later, eh goes out on a scout with his men and they come across a patrol of the 29th who tell them that it’s quiet. They find smoke and fire quite close to the camp, which makes Agrippa suspicious as the rebel messengers tend to use fire signals further away. Too late, he realizes that the fire is made utilizing redwoods, and that it was not set by the rebels–it’s a trap set by the 29th. Agrippa, in his anger nearly goes after Hostus for it, claiming that the man knows what happened. Yaro dies as a result.

Miki and Quintus tell Agrippa to go see Silvara–Yaro would have wanted him to and Quintus tells him to collect a favor that Servius owes Quintus. Agrippa gets a lot of food and meets with Silvara, taking her to a cave and crying on her shoulder about Yaro’s death. She realizes that he’s lied about his mom and his memories of her because he reveals that he remembers it. His mom was an indentured servant to one of the senators, and since his wife couldn’t give him kids, they took one of the boys that his mom birth–Tiberius. The wife was furious when Agrippa was born, and he wonders if Tiberius thinks of him–last he heard, he was to be married to one of the women from the Domitus family, clearly fitting in with the Cel and no one has been the wiser.

Marcus talks to Grypus who wants Hydrilla to fall soon, and gets the man’s word that he can lead the battle, and as a result of winning, he would have his own legion to lead. SO he starts to plan and takes Rastag (his engineer), Agrippa and Quintus along with a few others to the redwood forest and asks Quintus to climb up to confirm some maps of the fortress of Hydrilla. Agrippa patrols and comes across Silvara, who purposefully followed them to see what would happen and what information she could get. He hides her and uses his fingers to plug her ears. When they’re done, he tells her to wait and once they’ve gone, to make her way back to camp. She gets up and wonders what the plan is that they have.

Agrippa cannot help himself with all the questions about why Silvara was there, so he goes to see her and she tells him that it is all about food. She asks him to desert; do better and he ends it with her, saying that he would never leave his legion. As preparations for the siege of Hydrilla are underway, Hostus tells Agrippa to go use his men to clean out the follower’s camp of those who died. Agrippa has half his men clear out and dig, while the other half go to get the bodies. One of those bodies is Agnes, the lady that he had grown fond of from his first day in the launderess tent, and Silvara blames herself for her death. He has his men carry the bodies and let the people from the follower’s camp come. His men are ordered to cut down trees–not the redwoods that they believe contain the spirits of those who died–but other ones so that the followers camp can create fire. He goes out on his own into the woods, and while Carina urges Silvara to follow, and rekindle their relationship, Silvara doesn’t. Agrippa shows up again as they bury Agnes, with one of his men explaining just moments before to Silvara that Agrippa cares too much. The men leave, and Silvara gets upset because they are leaving the followers to fend for themselves, but then she realizes that they had left enough wood and a deer for the followers to eat and keep warm through the night.

Later, Agrippa cannot sleep through the noise and worries about Silvara, so he seeks her out in her tent, cuddling up with her to keep her warm. He reveals to her that Hostus is not the genius behind the military prowess or the battles, but rather takes credit for someone else’s work. Silvara realizes that it is Marcus. The next day, when Agrippa is gone, she goes to Carina and Hector, who is having a meltdown that they should’ve surrendered. She tells them that Marcus is the one creating the plans, so they get an idea–to tell Hostus that Marcus will be leading the battle with the hopes that Hostus will kill him and the two legions would begin to fight each other.

Marus, in the meantime, had gone into the tunnel that the lion had dug, but that was collapsed by the rebels and listens in on the Bardenese conversing. They talk about waiting for the winter and the legion will retreat. Marcus tells them that it will not be the case because the legions will be supplied well through the xenither stem and to watch all that food come in tomorrow. He offers them the chance to surrender their children by noon tomorrow.

He then convinces Grypus, while he is sword fighting with Felix to give the rebels the chance to hand over their children. Grypus agrees only when he realizes that child killers do not get statues in Celendrial. Marcus rides to the gates, but the rebels do not send their children.

He is summoned by Hostus and goes alone though Amarin begs him not to. Hostus demands to know why he thought he could take the command from under him, and he beats Marcus, only drawing a scream from him when he cuts him. Marcus warns Hostus that if he kills him, the whole 37th will be on his and his men, fighting. Hostus, not wanting to lose control and his pride, lets him go. Marcus did not give that command–specifically telling Amarin that in the event he is killed, Agrippa should be made legates because he has a head for politics, and that the 37th should not engage with the 29th. Marcus makes it back to his tent and tells Amarin to call for Agrippa but no one else. Agrippa stitches him up and Marcus tells him that if he dies, Agrippa is to take command as Legatus. He then passes out.

Agrippa goes to Felix, tells him what happened and when Felix wants to go after Hostus, Agrippa tells him that he will not be doing that at all. Agrippa then goes to Silvara and knowing it will be his last time with her, while worrying about Marcus, he tells her that he will go and be where he must. She tries to convince him to leave yet again, but he says he won’t. Agrippa goes to leave and then she asks him to stay. They end up having sex and he leaves her sleeping at dawn, deciding that she deserves better than living in a follower’s camp, though he would rather have her close because he loves her.

He comes back to Marcus, who had woken up once already to see Felix and then passed out. Marcus doesn’t look good, but wants to move and get his men underway. Agrippa tells him that he’s in no way able to do that and suggests a different path–to tell the 37th what really happened but give the order to stand down. Marcus agrees to it and Agrippa goes on his way to make that happen, while Marcus and Felix stay in the tent. When Marcus finally gets out of his tent, he sees that there are many more men guarding him, off-duty legionnaires who took it upon themselves to protect him. Marcus checks in with Grypus, who tells him in wasn’t he who told Hostus about Marcus’s command.

Agrippa and his chosen 20 go in through the tunnel, and the legions chant until Marcus gives the command to stop. Agrippa and his men start killing the rebels, with Agrippa turning off all his emotions and becoming a machine. By the time they get the other contingent of legionnaires Agrippa’s team is down to 11 members. They fight, pushing the rebels to the north wall, where there is a ravine and a chance for these rebels to get to safety. Agrippa himself had even told two boys to go that way to get to safety before getting into the fight. Once the fortress falls, Marcus says that it is done, and Grypus tells Hostus and his men to ride in and finish off the rest of the Bardenese, who might very well be alive.

Agrippa is in the medical tent and he sews up Quintus and asks him and Miki for any coin they may have in their pockets, promising to pay them back. He then goes to see Silvara and tells her that it is done. Silvara starts freaking out that her father and brother are dead. Agrippa starts question, when there is a knife at his back, and Carina shows up with Hektor holding a knife to Silver’s back. They order her to take Agrippa’s weapons out, and he tells her to follow the order. A third voice comes out–Silvara’s brother, Jac–and the three (Carina, Hektor and Jac) reveal that while Agrippa may have only been a primus, he certainly was well aware of the plan and is part of Marcus’s inner circle, because he was the one who attacked the Fortress from below and behind. Jac tells her that Agrippa was the one who killed their father–they saw this happen with their own eyes.

By this point they are at the river, and Agrippa breaks out of his binds, verbally defending himself that he was doing it to protect his brothers and that he there wasn’t any way that Hydrilla wouldn’t have lost. He grabs the knife from Carina in the process of getting out of his bindings and throws it only for it to kill Hektor. As a result, Silvara falls into the water, and he gets her out, but is stuck himself as she refuses to help him before getting answers. He tells her that he was helping his brothers and she tells him that being in the legions is not the only choice he’s had. She then steps on his hand and causes him to let go of the rock. She realizes her mistake soon enough as the rapids are taking Agrippa towards the side that disappears into a dead end. Agrippa realizes that too, and his body gets broken as he heads into the darkness of the cave.

Silvara, Carina and Jac turn around to see a group of men–one of whom Silvara recognizes as Agrippa’s men. He says that finally Agrippa is gone and he has been trying to get rid of him for a while so that the legates could see that he’s not a good for primus and that it should have been him all along. He tells Silvara to run along–he will come for her sooner or later, and that he needs to make it believable so he tells Carina to come with him to tell the story that Agrippa ran away.

Marcus is with Grypus, who asks for Agrippa to hear the story of how the battle went. Marcus has Gibzen sent out to fetch Agrippa from the medic tent, since they were his men. Hostus shows up, angry to be interrupted from his proclivities in war, and Grypus tells him that he will come when called. Gibzen comes back to tell them that Agrippa is not in the medical tent, so they sent out a search party. Hostus says that he should know better than to trust a man with his own agenda and that if he had been in Marcus’s shoes at Camp Lescendor, he would’ve killed Agrippa instead of having him bend the knee. Marcus’s skin crawls because these are the secrets of the 37th and no one else should know them.

Gibzen returns with Carina who tells them that she saw Agrippa and the laundress leave together in civilian clothing. Quintus calls bullshit on that and something is off about it to Marcus but Miki and Quintus both had confirmed that Agrippa spent a lot of time with the girl. In order to gain the 37th legion’s freedom, Marcus is forced to write “deserter” and sign and date next to Agrippa’s legion number in his book.

Agrippa wakes up in a foreign land–greenery and warmth, and sure enough, he sees a Xenither Stem. His body feels broken and he sees a tiger come towards him, but when he rolls around he finds a man instead. The Man moves him and then disappears until he comes back later with a group of people, and Agrippa watches as a different man and woman fix his legs, aging while they heal him. He passes out from a cut that the woman makes.

Then he wakes up, he is healed, and sees the couple who healed him looking ancient. A younger girl sits next to him and he uses all the languages he knows, only for non except the Maarin language to be understood. The girl tells him that he isn the unchartered lands near Arinoquia and voices from other people tell him welcome to the Dark Shores. He tells them that he is from an entirely different continent to the west, having figured out that he left Bardeen in the night and landed here in the day.

My Thoughts: I was really curious about Agrippa’s story and how he ended up in the Dark Shores considering that he is from Celendrial. I absolutely loved seeing his story come alive, and I wonder how this information will play out in the next book of this series–whether we will see Agrippa meet with Marcus and his legion, and explain what had happened, and whether Marcus will put it together after hearing the story from the people that it was actually Agrippa. I also wonder what happened to Silvara and where she is–will we see her in the next book in this series, or she’s more of the past without any future? I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.