the Blood Road (Legionary 7) by Gordon Doherty

Author:Gordon Doherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action adventure, military fiction, roman empire, simon scarrow, ancient war heroes, best ancient war movies, historical adventure thrillers, list of ancient empires, roman fiction novels, historical warfare
Publisher: Gordon Doherty

Eriulf, as tall as Theodosius, came to within a few paces of the Emperor of the East and stopped. He knew it was befitting of a subject to genuflect or even drop prone before his emperor. No part of him wanted to. In his heart, every ghost of his dead and exiled people cried aloud for vengeance. Only once before, during the triumphal adventus of Theodosius’ first entry into Constantinople, had he been so close to the Emperor of the East, riding in the imperial chariot along the main way through cheering crowds. But that had been before he had awakened to the truth.

The Wodin-chosen will slay the emperor’s spawn. The time of the Vesi draws closer, Runa’s spirit urged him. The Vesi strike hard, and at the highest of men.

Theodosius’ warm expression altered. Had the emperor heard the ghostly whispers? No, he realised: the emperor, like the now-silent crowd, were merely expecting him to behave as a subject should. To kneel. He almost felt the fiery talons of his dead sister’s wrath. Bend your knee to this man? One of the two horns upon which our people were ravaged?

He could not refute his sister’s argument. Theodosius was the man who had invited his and Runa’s tribe into Roman lands on the promise of good farming lands in Thracia and Macedonia – similar in climate and terrain to their ancestral homes north of the Danubius – in exchange for military service. In fact, they had arrived in Roman lands only to be treated like cattle, most shipped off to Egypt, men of fighting age separated from their families. Tribunus Pavo had assured him it was the now-dead General Julius, Butcher of Chalcedon, who had been behind such treatment, but that only lowered his respect for Theodosius even further – to allow a wayward underling to commit such atrocious crimes. Then the Christian diatribes and those wretched Inquisitors had ground the last crumbs of esteem into dust.

For the glory of Wodin, tear that knife from under your cuirass and plant it in his neck! Runa screamed, the memory of her beautiful face warping, her soft skin streaked by the red paint of the Vesi, her pale beauty ruined by frothing anger. For just a moment, his hand twitched. The Inquisitors were too far away to intervene. It could happen. Here… now.

A notch of confusion appeared between Theodosius’ eyebrows.

Eriulf’s arm shot out… and he took the emperor’s hand, falling to one knee, kissing Theodosius’ gem-studded rings as he had seen Theodosius do to Gratian. ‘Domine, I serve you now, always…’

The crowd gushed with a tumultuous round of cheering and applause and a fresh, thicker fall of petals and ribbons drifted down.

Runa’s wrath was like an earth tremor in his heart and mind, but he steeled himself against it, dipping his head in full deference to Emperor Theodosius. You do not understand, Sister. I might slay this man here today, but the horns are a pair, as you said yourself, he rolled his eyes sideways to glare at Gratian, and a new one would simply sprout in its place.

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