Autophage on the Antonine (2021)

A far-flung Roman outpost...

A cold and lonely land...

A terrifying madness that must be contained...

Brother Sol, a warrior-monk belonging to an ancient order, is summoned to the Antonine Wall to investigate a gruesome mystery.

The garrison at Fort Arbor, one of the last manned outposts on the wall, has imprisoned a deserter from the nearby Fort Bratus. But this is no ordinary deserter. This man is an autophage; he is quite literally eating himself alive.

With a young Roman soldier and a Celtic slave, Sol must travel to Fort Bratus to determine if the deserter is alone in his madness, or if something more sinister is afoot. If this is something that could spread...

Along the way, Sol will have to contend with the anger harboured by the soldier against the slave, the slave against the soldier, to say nothing of the anger that lurks deep within himself.

What Sol dreads most is not the madness of self-cannibalism, but the madness that will follow if it turns out to be true. The fear. The hate. The accusations that will be cast. The buried animosities it will bring to the surface. What he dreads most is what it will bring out in himself. What he has spent half a lifetime running from...