As Sure as the Dawn

The third and final installment in the Mark of the Lion series, set in the first-century Roman Empire, follows Atretes, a former chieftain of the Chatti, a Germanic tribe, who was captured by Rome and forced to fight as a gladiator for 10 years. In a prologue set in A.D. 79, Atretes visits Hadassah, a Christian slave girl condemned to die in the Ephesian arena. He tells her of a recurring dream in which a man with bleeding palms reaches out to him. Hadassah identifies the figure as Jesus and reveals that Atretes' infant son is alive: His former lover, Julia Valerian, had ordered the baby abandoned to die, but Hadassah disobeyed and brought the child to the apostle John, who placed him with Rizpah, a young Christian widow. Hadassah urges Atretes to find his son and take hold of Christ.

Atretes tracks down John near Ephesus and learns that Rizpah has the child. His celebrity makes navigating the city dangerous, as adoring mobs pursue him. When Rizpah arrives at his villa with the baby, whom she has named Caleb, Atretes tries to take the child by force. She refuses to leave, and Caleb will not nurse from anyone else, forcing Atretes to install her as a paid nurse. Sertes, the editor of the Ephesian games who once owned Atretes, visits and notices the baby. Atretes fears Sertes will use Caleb as leverage and begins planning their escape.

Rizpah seeks help from John, who arranges passage on a ship bound for Rome for them and about 20 other Christians fleeing persecution. On the night of departure, Atretes discovers his guard has been spying for Sertes and kills him, an act that horrifies Rizpah. At the dock, Theophilus, a Roman centurion and devout Christian sent by John to guide Atretes home to Germania, joins them. Atretes attacks him on sight, but Theophilus disarms him calmly.

During the voyage, Atretes isolates himself from the Christians and resents Theophilus' rapport with Rizpah. When Illyrian pirates attack, Atretes fights fiercely but is knocked overboard, and Theophilus dives in to rescue him. One of the young evangelists is killed. In the aftermath, Atretes acknowledges Theophilus' courage with a grudging nod.

At Ostia, the port of Rome, Atretes insists on finding shelter through his own contacts. He takes Rizpah to an inn owned by Pugnax, an ex-gladiator, but his public insult of an aristocrat connected to Domitian, the emperor's brother, provokes an order for his arrest. Theophilus storms the inn, knocks Atretes unconscious, and brings the family to underground catacombs beneath the estate of an elderly Christian noblewoman. While hiding, Atretes learns that Pugnax has been fed to wild dogs on Domitian's orders and that Bato, his former lanista (gladiator trainer), turned a dagger on himself in the arena rather than submit to execution. These deaths, caused by his recklessness, devastate Atretes. Theophilus resigns his military commission. During worship gatherings, readings from the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans pierce Atretes' defenses.

They escape Rome during a fire and travel north through Italy and over the Alps. Rizpah reveals her painful past: After her mother's death, she lived on the streets of Ephesus from age 11, stealing and twice selling her body to survive before a Christian man rescued and married her. Atretes is devastated, knowing Germanic law demands death for unchaste women, but he exonerates her, recognizing she has been transformed. Throughout the journey, Theophilus teaches Atretes Scripture, and despite his resistance, the words take root.

Past the Rhine, they are ambushed by the Mattiaci, a neighboring Germanic tribe. Rizpah is struck by an arrow and dies in Atretes' arms. Theophilus lays hands on her and prays, and Rizpah draws breath again, fully healed. Atretes, knocked to the ground by an unseen force, declares her God the true God and demands baptism. Theophilus baptizes him in a spring, and Atretes claims Rizpah as his wife. She accepts, and Theophilus performs a simple ceremony. Atretes insists they camp while Theophilus recounts the full biblical narrative, from Creation to the coming of Jesus. Though Atretes absorbs the teaching intensely, he draws a troubling parallel between Christ as the sacrificial lamb and Germanic rites of sacrifice.

Atretes leads them to his homeland, finding his old village burned and his people resettled near a sacred wood dedicated to Tiwaz, the Germanic war god. His mother Freyja, a high priestess of Tiwaz; his brother Varus, who was wounded in battle; and his sister Marta greet him with joy. But Anomia, the younger sister of Atretes' dead first wife, has become a powerful priestess of Tiwaz and perceives Rizpah and Theophilus as threats. When Rizpah and Theophilus miraculously speak German, a gift they interpret as divine tongues, Atretes aggressively proclaims Christ's superiority, alienating his kinsmen. Anomia forces a trial by combat; Theophilus, pitted against Rolf, the young Chatti champion, discards his sword at God's command and defeats Rolf bare-handed with three blows.

Over the following months, Anomia works to undermine the Christians, sickening Marta with a curse that breaks only when Rizpah prays at her bedside. She cultivates a secret council of warriors and provokes Atretes' buried rage. His aggressive evangelism drives people away, and he grows frustrated, increasingly tempted by Anomia's beauty. Anomia then selects Rolf to assassinate Theophilus with a ceremonial dagger. Rolf carries out the attack at dawn. Theophilus forgives him as he dies, tells Rizpah not to reveal the killer's identity, and charges Atretes to care for those who have come to faith.

Atretes demands to know who killed Theophilus. Rizpah refuses to say. He strikes her, banishes her from the longhouse, and takes Caleb. Rizpah endures nearly two weeks alone in Theophilus' grubenhaus, a sunken pit-house, sustained by prayer and anonymous gifts from secret believers. Atretes spirals into drinking. In a drunken stupor, he tells Anomia that Caleb's birth mother was Roman and that Rizpah had been with men before him.

Anomia uses these revelations to bring charges before the Thing, the Chatti tribal assembly, accusing Rizpah of being unchaste, a witch, and a cannibal for practicing communion. In the sacred grove, Rizpah refuses to lie, confirms the accusations about her past, and proclaims the gospel. Rolf reveals that Anomia sent him to kill Theophilus. Lightning strikes the sacred oak, splitting it, and a second bolt melts the golden horns of Tiwaz on the altar. Warriors cry out in terror.

Anomia demands Rizpah be drowned in the bog. As Rud, the chief, pushes her onto a plank, he loses his balance and both fall in. Rud sinks and dies, but Rizpah walks across the surface as though on solid ground, a radiant figure in white beside her. Warriors flee. Freyja tears off her talisman and declares faith in Jesus. The villagers drive out the believers, but a small group, including Freyja, Marta's family, Rolf, and others, follow Atretes and Rizpah.

In the epilogue, Atretes leads the band to the northeastern plains, where they establish a Christian community along a trade route. Rizpah teaches Atretes to read, and he begins reading aloud from the Gospel of Luke, a scroll Theophilus had carried from Ephesus that opens with a dedication to "most excellent Theophilus." Anomia returns to the old village and incites the remaining Chatti to rebel against Rome; in A.D. 83, Domitian's legions destroy them. Atretes and Rizpah's daughter, whose name likely honors Hadassah, the slave girl who first shared the gospel with Atretes, becomes known for wisdom and kindness. Their son Caleb eventually carries the gospel to the Vikings.