The sly deceit and deception of the Dacian King unleashes an Emperor's revenge. A soldier learns the wily crafts of war and politics as he rises through the ranks of the legendary Legion of Gemina. Overreaching ambition lays the framework for fissures within the Roman Empire.

Years of provocation and deception have incited the Emperor Trajan to restore the honour of Rome on the eastern frontiers of the empire. Shameful memories of past humiliations from broken treaties and the dishonourable losses of Roman legions compel the emperor to subdue the frontier territories and to impose Roman hegemony. Senior Tribune Cletus, steadily elevated by battlefield actions of bravery and courage through the Legion Gemina ranks, finds his allegiances tested as he climbs the ladder of power during the arc of the expansionary campaign.

Under the hot sun of his native land Hispania, the restless Emperor Hadrian plots his next steps. The Judean zealots continue to cause unrest, and the unstable threat of Jerusalem beckons for subjugation. The senate roils with discontent and seethes with suspicions. A reckoning looms for both. In the rich and placid waters of the Nile the ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet casts her terrifying wrath and exacts her savage revenge. The mists of his life swirl around Hadrian in the twilight of his imperium. His regrets and memories swarm in his thoughts as he gazes through heavy lidded eyes at the huge reflecting pool in Tibor. He shudders as he recalls the curse of Sekhmet.