He let his words trail off, and a man stumbled into the lodge, bowing to the new arrivals with reverence.

“Centurion, are your guests hungry?” the man asked in Latin.

Marius slapped his head and turned to Cade and his friends. “Of course, I am so rude. Please, some food?”

The new arrival barked an order in Latin, and another man entered, carrying wooden bowls on a platter.

“I … thank you,” Cade mumbled as a bowl was handed to each of them.

His stomach turned as he saw what was within.

Insects. Or something very much like them. Stag beetles, if he had to make a close approximation, but with eight legs, and far more eyes—now sunken cavities after cooking—than even the most nightmarish of spiders.

They had been charred and roasted, such that he could not tell their original color. The meal sat in a pool of its own juices, and Cade struggled to find a single thing appetizing about it.

“I’m not sure if I can keep this down,” Bea said, her voice queasy.

She looked up at Marius, who smiled back.

“It’s better if you think of it as a crab,” he said, cracking a leg free and slurping at the white meat within. “It’s almost all we have eaten since we arrived, beyond some parsnips we have managed to grow.”

Amber threw Cade a glance, motioning at the sack of jerky they had brought with them.

“Here,” she said. “Try this.”

Marius took the bag and withdrew a morsel of the dried jerky. For a moment he stared at it as if it were a jewel.

He lay it on his tongue reverently and bit down, his eyes closed in apparent ecstasy. He chewed slowly, only gulping down when he had extracted the last bit of flavor from the food.

Marius proffered the sack back to Amber, but she held up her hands.

“It’s all yours,” she said, glaring at Scott as he groaned softly.

Cade took hold of an insectile leg and pulled it free with a soft crack. He held it up, then sucked the meat into his mouth.

To his surprise, it was bland and rubbery—like unseasoned tofu.

“Thank you,” he said as the starving Marius stuffed a handful of jerky into his mouth. “For everything. We won’t forget this.”

CHAPTER

16

Cade woke to the sound of deep voices calling to one another outside. It was strange to be in the presence of so many. He had become used to the soft voices of his companions, and the lazy mornings that had made up the last few months.

They had slept around the fire, exhausted by the battle and their walk, though not before a medic had bandaged their wounds. Now, the others preferred to rest inside, but as Marius’s voice barked orders at the men, Cade’s curiosity outweighed his tiredness. Quintus had been a Roman, true, and Cade had spent many an hour learning the reality of Roman history from him. But now he could actually see a legionary camp in action.