Two emperors – one must fall
Marcus Aquila and his patron Rutlius Scaurus have fought a superior enemy force to a standstill in Thracia, gaining the favour of the gods but paying a grievous cost in their family’s blood.
Battle-weary and mourning their losses, they are tasked with rooting out a spy ring operating in the lands into which their imperial master Severus’s armies are advancing.
Hunting down informers operating under the skilled and ruthless command of their sworn enemy Sartorius, spymaster to the usurper Niger, will not be easy. But the potential to turn his intelligence network, and thereby deceive and distract the enemy, might land a war-winning blow on the army of the east.
The quest to find and subvert their foes’ informers will place the two friends at great risk, with torture and death the price of any mistake. While success will put them in the front rank of a bitter battle against battle hardened legions, hungry for revenge, in a bloody struggle to determine the fate of Asia’s loyalty.
And Scaurus is a man with a powerful threat still hanging over him, a curse imploring the gods to fell him at the very moment of his greatest victory.
‘A master of the genre’ The Times
Marcus Aquila and his patron Rutlius Scaurus have fought a superior enemy force to a standstill in Thracia, gaining the favour of the gods but paying a grievous cost in their family’s blood.
Battle-weary and mourning their losses, they are tasked with rooting out a spy ring operating in the lands into which their imperial master Severus’s armies are advancing.
Hunting down informers operating under the skilled and ruthless command of their sworn enemy Sartorius, spymaster to the usurper Niger, will not be easy. But the potential to turn his intelligence network, and thereby deceive and distract the enemy, might land a war-winning blow on the army of the east.
The quest to find and subvert their foes’ informers will place the two friends at great risk, with torture and death the price of any mistake. While success will put them in the front rank of a bitter battle against battle hardened legions, hungry for revenge, in a bloody struggle to determine the fate of Asia’s loyalty.
And Scaurus is a man with a powerful threat still hanging over him, a curse imploring the gods to fell him at the very moment of his greatest victory.
‘A master of the genre’ The Times
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Reviews
Praise for Anthony Riches . . .
. . . a gripping narrative full of breath-taking action, unforgettable characters, and dazzling twists and turns
A masterclass in military historical fiction.
A master of the genre.
Fast-paced and gripping "read-through-the-night" fiction with marvellous characters
and occasional moments of dark humour. Some authors are better historians than they
are storytellers. Anthony Riches is brilliant at both.
A damn fine read . . . fast-paced, action-packed.
Stands head and shoulders above a crowded field . . . real, live characters act out
their battles on the northern borders with an accuracy of detail and depth of raw
emotion that is a rare combination.
