Attila’s Revenge: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Wayne English

After Attila The Hun destroyed the city of Aquileia, he finds Annora, the daughter of a Roman woman he hates and lusts for among the captives. With courage born of desperation, Annora hatches a plan that may save herself and her slave, Caia. To cover Caia’s escape, Annora will insult Attila to his face just as her mother did decades ago when Attila was an exchange hostage living with the Romans. In those days, it was Tulli’s responsibility to prevent Attila from escaping. One day, Attila tried to have six escaped slaves kill Tulli. One by one Tulli killed them. Then he beat and kicked Attila all the way back to his quarters. All the while taunting Attila and bragging about being with his beautiful wife, Annora’s mother, who Attila lusted for. Many nights Attila thought of her long white-blonde hair, tall, slim figure, and blazing blue eyes. When she insulted him, those eyes were his and his alone. When he first sees Annora she looks so much like her mother, he thought her a ghost. Now he had what they want most. Through her, he will avenge his anger and his lust. He smiles, ignoring her taunts. He will marry her, impregnate her, and watch her die a starving beggar - after she bears his son. A son Annora’s family will never see. To avenge himself, he will destroy them. Ruin them. Crush the rest of their lives. Such is Attila’s hate for Annora’s mother and father. Annora is going to live and will live with a Hun family. When a warrior rudely grabs her arm, she decks him with an open-handed strike. The warrior’s eyes go wide. To be knocked to the ground by a Roman woman in frony of thousands of Huns is not good. Annora is then gently led away. Then they assign a Roman woman to be her slave. This is unheard of and not a good sign for her future. Though she doesn’t know it yet. The Hun wife wants Annora dead, but Attila’s warriors tell her that Annora is for Attila and is not to be harmed. Annora’s ruse works and Caia escapes. She fights a pitched battle with a Hun and wins by using her sandals to make a sling. Then, a wolf, determined to kill her, hunts her, she gets lost, becomes half starved, and hunters rescue her. Afterward, she takes a ship to cross the sea and return to Annora’s parents. She tells them that Annora may yet live in the camp of Attila, where she will surely die if they don’t get her out. Annora’s parents are among the richest in the Roman Empire. Her mother is the Emperor’s sister, brilliant, politically connected. She is a woman who gets what she wants. And she wants her daughter set free. Her father is the general of the dreaded Wolf Legion and a Roman Senator. They will need their wealth, their cunning, power and influence to rescue their daughter from a hundred thousand Huns if they are to live to tell the tale. But can it be done? They must kill Attila to gain Annora’s freedom and make their escape, and they can’t leave any proof that leads back to Rome, or Attila will destroy the Western Empire.