Hi. If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably enjoyed this novel. What Lies Dreaming is the product of a year and a half of writing, followed by about a year of revisions. This wasn’t full time work, as I still Read More

44. Joah For the first time in a seven-day eternity I could breathe without gagging. I hadn’t realized how quickly I’d grown accepting of that unnatural reek. I filled my lungs with clean, clear air. It didn’t stick or obstruct. Read More

43. Andreas You’ve left the Colosseum. You step from its broken shadows, crossing into sunlight. The streets around you lie abandoned. Perhaps distant sounds of chaos and suffering fill the air, but if so they are lost among the general Read More

42. Marcus Verus Marcus swung his sword in a downward chop, reckless and overbalanced, like a peasant. Paullus rolled aside across the carpet of bodies and sprung back to his feet, as Marcus stumbled after on his crunching ankle. Three Read More

41. Joah I focused only on small patches of skin so I wouldn’t have to see the full ruin I made of the emaciated body below me. When I shredded the face I closed my eyes entirely. Reality set into Read More

40. Andreas, Joah, Marcus Verus You read quickly, voraciously, deadened to the world. There is nothing but you, and this room, and the pages you hold. The yellings of the gods have taken on a terrified screaming tone, but you’re Read More

39. Joah Within the arena, the winged monster shrieked and swooped. I watched from the tunnel entrance. I hadn’t woken up yet. I kept expecting to wake up. A gladiator’s throat erupted into a red geyser, dreamlike, and the beast Read More

38. Marcus Verus Marcus held himself painfully still as the morning games progressed. He chafed at the frustration of sitting at the head of the Imperial Box, doing nothing, for hours. These were critical times, and there was only one Read More

37. Joah I sat for many hours under that hill, my eyes on the stars above. I tracked the moon as it crossed before them, shamelessly radiant. I considered Erik’s last words to me. We don’t need money, Joah. We Read More

36. Andreas You exist in a cool bubble at the bottom of a hot ocean, sitting hunched over Marcus’s desk. Prodigious candle light bathes your surroundings in golden calm. The walls of your refuge are broken in two places, opposite Read More

35. Marcus Verus “No, that isn’t possible.” The wizard’s translator sat by the pallid man, holding one of his hands in both of hers. He shivered under a blanket, even in the choking afternoon. His condition had further deteriorated under Read More

34. Joah The hours kept growing heavier, the sky more oppressive. Its blue dome sank onto the Earth, squeezing us beneath its weight. I kept my head ducked as I scurried from frantic streets to debris-choked alleys, afraid of feeling Read More

33. Andreas You’re back in the tunnels of Jerusalem when Eydis finds you. The tunnels were charnel houses. The Jews kept the bones of their ancestors underneath the city. You can’t count the number of times you battled in the Read More

32. Marcus Verus Marcus Verus limped briskly to the Forum under heavy guard. His blood sang with vigor. Not even the plague of nightmares could sap him of his strength today. One abscess had been excised from Rome’s body last Read More

31. Joah Verus I woke at the bottom of an ocean of crushing atmosphere. I scrambled out of bed, thrashing upward for a surface that wasn’t there, before wakefulness fully settled in and I realized I could breathe. “Dear, you Read More

30. Andreas All this killing is really starting to get to you. You know it’s important. You know that the only way to stop violence is counter-violence. The Praetorians would kill anyone in their way if you didn’t stop them. Read More

29. Marcus Verus Marcus came to the end of his son’s letters. He’d done nothing but read them since Titus kindled his suspicion yesterday evening. He’d read through them all multiple times. His hands trembled. Twenty-four hours ago, he’d secluded Read More

28. Andreas A Praetorian body falls from the sky and breaks on the cobblestones beside you. A stench of rotting spices bursts from it. Shouted orders and fighting grunts filter from above as you haul dilapidated furniture from the tenement Read More

27. Joah The extent that my real day followed the course of my dream was surreal. The unwilling vendors, the dusty crone. Every step a retread of what I’d already lived. I waited, coiled like a spring, after visiting the Read More

26. Andreas “You’re kidding, right? They’ll never accept me!” Benayah looks at you with incredulous eyes. He doesn’t believe you, but you can see the change in him. He’s killed now. He’s killed a man in combat, a man who Read More

25. Joah I tossed in bed all night, my skin crawling with every breath. Perhaps I drifted in and out of wakefulness a number of times. It was impossible to tell, the wizard’s scratching words followed me into my dreams Read More

24. Andreas “Eydis, I thought you should know… Cornelius is dead.” You speak over the muffled howls of agitated beasts in the near distance. Eydis pauses in her work, the knife’s edge coming to rest against the large, conical horn Read More

23. Marcus Verus “You’re neglecting your daughters.” Domita’s low voice came from the garden-side entrance to his office. Marcus didn’t turn to acknowledge her. His head stayed bowed over his desk, his gaze caressing the pages before him. The day’s Read More

22. Joah I sat at the small desk of my musty writing room, quill in hand, trying to ignore the words crawling over my flesh. The barbarian wizard had begun a new ritual hours ago, jabbering hateful, guttural chants. The Read More

21. Andreas The hive of the Suburra buzzes with frenetic activity as its residents prepare for the incursion of the Praetorian Guard. Last night’s plunder must be hidden away. Floorboards are pried up, cots slit open. Children are given hand-grinders Read More

20. Marcus Verus “Decimus, what is happening in my city?” the emperor spoke from atop his dais in the Senate Hall. It should have been a rumbling demand, an inquisition of accountability rolling down the wide aisle between the rows Read More

19. Andreas You lean against a tenement in the Suburra district. A thick sky darkens above. You hold bread in your hands. Ultimately, this is what everything comes down to, isn’t it? Everything must consume to live. You grip a Read More

18. Joah A bite of pain tore my attention from my straining, gorged stomach. I jerked back my fingers as the wolfling nipped them with her needle-like puppy teeth. It wasn’t the pup’s fault, she didn’t know how to eat Read More

17. Andreas You stagger through Rome, the streets lurching beneath your feet. You carry a half-empty wineskin which didn’t belong to you this morning. Legally it still doesn’t belong to you, but that’s only temporary. As soon as you have Read More

16. Marcus Verus The house sat dark when Marcus woke, his heart hammering in his chest. No stinking barbarians crashed through his doors, axes sticky with gore. None of his family screamed as they were cut open. It had been Read More

15. Joah I had been a young man, once. I had known passion and folly in my youth. One such folly was named Ehud. We’d grown up in the same small village in Judea, but we hadn’t been friends. I Read More

14. Andreas You pace the broken Suburra streets as the day slouches towards its end, watching as men clear room and place feasting tables at regular intervals. They look bored, and none have shown any violent inclinations. Slaves load the Read More

13. Joah It was a bizarre list the wizard’s translator gave me, and I wondered how they’d come across half these items in the barbarian lands. Many were vile. I felt tainted just writing them down. I would burn this Read More

12. Andreas You spend the day following Benayah, which is sorta like watching over the poor district. Close enough to count, you figure. You had started the afternoon hanging around outside Cornelius’s tenement, unsure what exactly to do. Guard duty Read More

11. Marcus Verus “That’s three,” Marcus said to Titus after Andreas left. “We need more.” Marcus pushed himself to his feet, gathering his cane in one hand and Sextus’s letter in the other. Marcus took care not to knock the Read More

10. Andreas You wait. You fidget. You glance left, then glance right. You hate waiting. You are in Marcus Verus’s manor, a small palace on the upper slopes of the Caelian Hill, though on the wrong side to overlook the Read More

9. Joah “I need more food for the animals,” I told Sextus that morning. I’d come to visit him at the office in his home. The short uphill trudge from the Ludus was particularly unpleasant today. The smell of the Read More

8. Andreas You don’t really wake up, because you were never really asleep. You’d staggered into your father’s house on Quirinal Hill after dawn, then spent unknown hours drifting in and out of consciousness. Tossing in your bed. Sweating. The Read More

7. Joah It didn’t take me long to regret having consigned the old barbarian to the ranks of the damned. As I made my final rounds among the animals to be killed today, I saw the old savage’s likeness in Read More

6. Marcus Verus Marcus lowered himself into the steaming water with a grimace. His ankle throbbed at the heat. After a minute it would start to loosen, and soon he’d be able to roll it without too much pain. He Read More

5. Andreas Your head grew light on the return march, your insides hollow. You stumbled over your own feet. Unable to wait, you cut open your sixty-pound sack of grain, scooped a handful into your mouth, and chewed as best Read More

4. Joah After Titus had finally left with his emptied wagons, I gathered up the remains of my dignity and went searching for Zia. I couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. The gladiators had heard of my humiliation from the guards, and Read More

3. Marcus Verus Senator Marcus Verus sat frozen, drowning in the Senate Hall. “I return to my Emperor the First Blade of the Guard, to continue its divine service.” The words came murky to his ears, distorted and unreal. He Read More

2. Andreas Sometimes, you get second chances. If you’re really lucky sometimes you even get third chances. But the thing about fourth chances is–nobody ever, ever gets one of those. Not one in a million. Early this morning Sextus gave Read More

1. Joah I needed a monster. More than food, more than family, I needed a monster this week or I was dead. Worse than just dead, in fact. I’d die screaming, for the enjoyment of my betters. Somewhere in Rome, Read More