Excerpt from The Centurion's Wife.

Linux asked the question that had hung between them since Alban had emerged from the palace. "How was your audience with Pilate?"

"So intense I am still sorting through the fray." He grinned crookedly at his companion. "Like after a battle, just as you said."

Linux stirred the fire. "You know what is an officer's best friend in battle?"

"Cunning."

It was a good answer, but Linux flicked his head in disagreement. "Cunning alone can trap you. Get a soldier into a pinch and allow him a way to escape, cunning gives him reasons to turn from warrior to coward. And too often he'll fall into the trap his enemies have set."

Alban picked up one of the flatbreads and tossed it from hand to hand until it was cooled enough to eat. "What is it, then?"

"Cunning bonded to a secret rage. A good warrior lets the fury take hold only when the heat of war surrounds him. Then he lets loose, and cunning guides his aim." Linux inspected him gravely. "You have that rage, and you have that control, and you have that cunning. That is what I think Pilate found as well."

Alban rolled a slice of the meat and a bit of the dried fruit into his bread. He found himself silenced by Linux's observations. It was not often that a man read him as well as this one had.

The soldier continued to study him. "I for one wouldn't want to come up against you in a fight, centurion."
               ~ Excerpt from The Centurion's Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke.