# Read the first page of Empress of the Seven Hills by Kate Quinn Read the opening of Empress of the Seven Hills by Kate Quinn free, no signup. An ex-gladiator and a senator's restless daughter in Trajan's Rome. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/empress-of-the-seven-hills-kate-quinn - Genre: Historical fiction - Year: 2012 - ISBN: 9781101561416 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9781101561416&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9781101561416 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9781101561416 ## The opening When I was thirteen, an astrologer told me I’d lead a legion someday, a legion that would call me Vercingetorix the Red. Astrologers are usually horseshit, but that funny little man was right about everything: I got the nickname, and I even got the legion, though it took longer than it should have. But why didn’t that astrologer tell me any of the important things? Why didn’t he tell me that Emperors can be loved, but Empresses are only to be feared? Why didn’t he tell me I’d have to kill the best friend I ever had—on the orders of the worst man I ever knew? And why the hell didn’t he tell me about the girl in the blue veil I met the same day I got all these predictions? That bitch. Not that I guessed: We were just children, me a skinny slave boy, her a pretty girl in a blue veil, all bruised up (never mind why). The first girl I ever kissed, and she had a sweet mouth. I suppose that made me soft when I met her again later, after we’d both grown up. If that astrologer was so good, couldn’t he have warned me about her? “Girl in blue, beware.” What would that have cost him? She cost me plenty over the years, I can tell you. But that’s getting ahead of things. I’m Vercingetorix: “Vix” to my friends, “the Red” to my men, and “that pleb bastard” to my enemies. I’ve served four Emperors: killed one, loved one, befriended one, and maybe should have killed the other. I’m Vercingetorix, and I have a story to tell. I won’t bore you with my beginnings. They weren’t so illustrious anyway—my mother was a slave, and my father was a gladiator, and you can’t get much lower than that. If you follow the games in the Colosseum, then I can guarantee you’ve heard of my father, but I won’t tell you his name. The world thinks he’s dead, and that’s the way he likes it. He ended up on a mountaintop in the northern-most part of Britannia, torturing a patch of ground he calls a garden, and he’s happy. My mother’s happy too, singing at her work and producing babies to fill up the villa she got for doing an empress a favor (don’t ask what), but when I hit eighteen after nearly five years in Britannia, I got bored. It was better than what we’d come from, but I’d gotten used to excitement, and a mountaintop house filled with babies isn’t much excitement. Plus there was a girl in one of the neighboring houses who was starting to give me the eye, and we might have had some fun behind the barn once or twice but I didn’t want to marry her, and I didn’t think much of my chances if my father decided I should marry her. I was big at eighteen, but my father was bigger, and weapons might come easy to me but I didn’t stand a chance against him. So I lit out for Rome, the center of everything, and my father was dubious but he gave me an amulet to keep me safe and a purse to keep me fed. My mother cried, but that might have been the baby she was starting. Not much use describing the journey. It was wet, it was long, I lost my purse to a bastard of an Armenian sailor who cheated at dice, and I lost my dinner countless times over the bow. I hated boats. Still do. But I got to Rome. My parents hate Rome with all their hearts, and maybe they should after what they lived through. But I took one step off that reeking shit-hole of a boat and took in a deep breath, and I knew I was home. ## Books with a similar feel - [The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-quilters-apprentice-jennifer-chiaverini.md) - [The Beach at Summerly by Beatriz Williams](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-beach-at-summerly-beatriz-williams.md) - [The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-tea-girl-of-hummingbird-lane-lisa-see.md) - [The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-spies-of-shilling-lane-jennifer-ryan.md) - [Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict](https://uncovered.ink/read/daughter-of-egypt-marie-benedict.md) - [The Ambassador's Daughter by Pam Jenoff](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-ambassadors-daughter-pam-jenoff.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.