Altar of Blood: Empire IX Read online




  Contents

  Also by Anthony Riches

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Maps

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Historical Note

  The Roman Army in AD 182

  By the same author in the Empire series

  Wounds of Honour

  Arrows of Fury

  Fortress of Spears

  The Leopard Sword

  The Wolf’s Gold

  The Eagle’s Vengeance

  The Emperor’s Knives

  Thunder of the Gods

  About the Author

  Anthony Riches holds a degree in Military Studies from Manchester University. He began writing the story that would become the first novel in the Empire Series, Wounds of Honour, after a visit to Housesteads Roman Fort in 1996. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and three children.

  Find out more about his books at www.anthonyriches.com.

  ALTAR OF BLOOD

  Empire: Volume Nine

  Anthony Riches

  www.hodder.co.uk

  First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Hodder & Stoughton

  An Hachette UK company

  Copyright © Anthony Riches 2016

  The right of Anthony Riches to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 444 73203 0

  Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  www.hodder.co.uk

  For Helen

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  As ever with any inventor of stories for the entertainment of others, there are those who suffer what might best be called collateral damage when the pressures of making stuff up become too much for one (admittedly only moderately sized) brain to cope with. So I’ll keep the thank yous short and sweet for this one in order to say a proper thanks to the person who absorbs most of my emotional shrapnel.

  Industry types are important: Carolyn as editor, for her immense patience and occasional despairing email exhortation to just deliver something; Robin as agent, selling books to enable the creative stuff to have some point and Kerry as publicity, putting me in front of unsuspecting audiences. Booksellers matter hugely too, and none more so than David Headley and Daniel Gedeon at Goldsboro Books, bucking the trend and showing some others the way to make it work, quite apart from being lovely blokes.

  Friends in the business matter too: people like Ben Kane and Russ Whitfield for armoured charity walking idiocy, Harry Sidebottom and Giles Kristian for excellent socialising, Robyn Young for the same and for also coming up with great book names while under the influence and Simon Turney for a series of more than generous reviews on his website. And, for that matter, a whole load more bloggers like Robin Carter, Kate Atherton and Gareth Wilson for the time they put into showing their love for the genre and posting objective criticism of my and many others’ work.

  ‘My’ beta readers get a big thanks too, Viv, John and David, for waiting a year for a book which I then expect them to read in ten minutes and provide me with insightful criticism (and catch my stupid mistakes, which they almost invariably do).

  The biggest individual thank you has to go to the person who tolerates my inevitable mid-book paranoia, who tells me to go and write when the words aren’t coming naturally and TV looks infinitely preferable, and who helps me to celebrate when the book comes home and a brief respite from constant making stuff up is allowed. Helen Riches, you’re the sail, the rudder and sometimes the anchor too, on this boat of ours, and I couldn’t have done it without you.

  Which only leaves you, the people who continue to read the Empire series, and provide me with the motivation – and sometimes even the character inspiration – to continue chronicling the Roman empire’s travails of the late second century as seen through the eyes of a small group of soldiers who find themselves used as (if you’ll forgive me the 20th century military term) the emperor’s ‘fire brigade’. I sincerely hope that you enjoy this, the ninth in the Empire series. Marcus and the Tungrians (to abuse the Bondian cliché) will return, but the next three books will be a trilogy with the series title The Centurions, chronicling the Batavian Revolt of AD 69–70 from the perspective of both Romans and rebels. I hope you’ll stay with me for this new story: it has all the ingredients to be properly gripping.

  Prologue

  December AD 184

  ‘Bructeri warriors, your king is dead!’

  The gathered warriors of the tribe, five hundred of the bravest and best men sent from all over the tribe’s lands raised their gazes to look reverently at the bearded man lying on the funeral pyre around which they were gathered in the torch-lit darkness. As one they chanted the words expected of them in response to each pronouncement by the dead man’s brother.

  ‘Wodanaz, take him!’

  ‘He ruled over us with a fair and strong hand!’

  ‘Wodanaz, take him!’

  ‘He made us stronger, to resist our enemies!’

  ‘Wodanaz, take him!’

  ‘His life was long and fruitful, and he fathered a strong son!’

  ‘Wodanaz, take him!’

  ‘His life is ended, and he goes to greet his ancestors with pride!’

  ‘Wodanaz, take him!’

  ‘Now is the time for him to leave us!’

  ‘Wodanaz, take him!’

  The noble took a blazing torch from a waiting priest and put it to the pyre’s wooden base with a symbolic flourish, then handed it back to allow the holy man to ensure that the fire was properly lit.

  ‘Now is the time to anoint his successor!’

  The encircling warriors’ chanting became more urgent, the responses pitched as if demanding an answer.

  ‘Wodanaz, name him!’

  The dead king’s brother ushered forward a younger man dressed in the ceremonial armour of a prince of the Bructeri, his body clad in enough iron to equip a dozen men of the tribe for war.

  ‘The king’s son Amalric is his son and successor!’

  ‘Wodanaz, anoint him!’

  He swiftly smeared holy oil across the younger man’s forehead, tracing an ancient rune of power over the pale skin.

  ‘We his warriors declare him our king!’

  ‘Wodanaz, crown him!’

  Bowing solemnly to the prince, the noble held a simple gold crown, taken from the tribe’s treasury for the occasion, over his head, then lowered it into place and stepped back.

  ‘Will his warriors give their loyalty?’

  A sudden hush fell, and the assembled men sank as one onto their knees, the iron helmets of the new king’s household companions gleaming in the firelight.

&nbs
p; ‘Swear the oath!’

  The words were shouted proudly by every man present like an unstoppable force, a profession of their willingness to serve until death, at their king’s command in all things, for his glory, for the glory of the Bructeri people and in the name of their god Wodanaz. When it was done they turned to the blazing pyre and bowed three times, each time roaring out their approval of the dead king’s life, then repeated the homage for his son, their new ruler. The dead monarch’s brother held up his hands to command their silence, and after a moment all was quiet once more.

  ‘I, Gernot of the Bructeri, swear to serve this new king with all of the devotion that I gave to my brother, and to share what wisdom I have with him, to guide him on the path to equalling his father’s glory and that of his father before him. I will strain every muscle in my body to help him outdo them both, and make our tribe’s name echo in the halls of our neighbours, a name to inspire respect, and where needed, fear. In the halls of all our neighbours. In the halls of the Marsi!’ The warriors cheered. ‘The Chamavi!’ They cheered again. ‘The Angrivarii!’ Again. ‘And in the halls, my brothers …’ They knew what was coming, and five hundred men drew breath to shout ‘Of the Romans!’

  When the tumult had died down he signalled to the priest, who nodded in turn to his acolytes. With great ceremony a wooden frame was carried into the gathering, a frame on which was suspended a man’s naked body. Bound to the wood, his arms and legs spread wide, he was gagged to prevent any foul word sullying the ceremony, the rolling of his eyes his only means of communicating his terror at what was about to happen to him. He had been denied both food and water for three days to prevent any loss of bodily control casting a bad omen on the new king’s succession. Gernot gestured to the prisoner, calling out to his warriors once more.

  ‘See, I bring you a sacrifice to consecrate our new king’s reign! A Roman soldier, the symbol of our tribe’s oppression since the days of our forefathers! King Amalric, will you do us the honour as our chief priest of making the first cut?’

  The younger man nodded graciously, taking the proffered knife from the priest the tribe called The Hand of Wodanaz, who would shortly be hard at work on the captive with his own tools – fierce, workmanlike knives, flenses for peeling away a man’s skin from the flesh below, and the terrible saw with which he would liberate the greatest prize of all. He held up the knife, its blade liquid orange in the pyre’s flickering light as the flames consumed his father’s body, and the encircling warriors bayed for the helpless Roman’s blood. Approaching the struggling captive, now writhing ineffectually against the ropes that held him tightly, he raised the blade theatrically before placing it against the sacrificial victim’s right index finger, taking the digit in his other hand as was the accepted practice, pulling it tight for the first cut that had to remove the finger with one cut if the omens were to be favourable.

  He dragged the knife backwards, severing the finger with a single pull of its ragged edge, staring into the Roman’s eyes as they slitted with the pain, nodding slowly as the captive met his stare, then said two words in Latin that only the victim would ever hear.

  ‘Forgive me.’

  1

  April AD 186

  ‘Now then, here’s a rarity, eh lads?’

  The figure who had strutted out of the night’s deeper shadows spoke with the confidence of a man who knew that he had the upper hand in whatever it was that was about to happen. Lean and hard muscled, he grinned in apparent amusement, the dagger in his right hand glinting in the glow of a crescent moon and countless stars. Insulae rose around them in rough-faced rows, lights extinguished and shutters firmly closed to keep out the sounds and smells of the Roman night, a time when robbers roamed the streets and the population’s rubbish and faeces littered the cobbles. There would be no help forthcoming for any man foolish enough to find himself alone in such a place after dark.

  ‘A man with money who chooses to walk through this part of the city at this time of night needs to have his wits about him, or better still a gladiator or two. He needs to have hired big men, friends, ugly men with scars and blades. Men he can depend on to scare bad people like us away, and bring him home safe.’

  The robber strolled towards the lone pedestrian standing in the road before him with the easy gait of a man taking his leisure, grinning wolfishly at the tunic-clad man he and the men behind him had interrupted in his progress through the fetid streets of Rome’s Subura district, stopping a few paces from the subject of his wry monologue. More men coalesced out of the night to either side of him, stepping forward to reveal their ragged clothes and hard faces.

  ‘And yet here you are, unarmed and all on your own, without so much as a well-built slave to steer you clear of trouble. It’s not clever, not with you so clearly being a man with a lot to lose. Look at those shoes lads, that’s proper workmanship. Worth a gold aureus to the right man, they are. And that tunic? What sort of man walks the streets of Rome after dark on his own in a tunic with a purple stripe on it? Your purse must be weighing you down like a bull’s ball bag. And you’ll have a house somewhere a good deal nicer than this shithole, probably with a pretty little wife waiting for you to get home and see to her needs …’

  A more alert man would have seen the look that momentarily contorted his would-be victim’s face, but the robber was too busy enjoying the opportunity for sport in front of his fellow gang members.

  ‘She’ll be expecting you home, once you’re done with whatever it is you’ve been doing down here in the slums. So it’s going to be quite a shock for her when we come through the door, isn’t it?’

  He smiled into his victim’s flat expression.

  ‘Of course, you’re thinking that you won’t tell us where your house is …’

  He gestured with the dagger, raising it to allow the other man a clear view of the weapon.

  ‘… but you will. Once we get to work on you you’ll tell us everything, give us anything, just to stop.’

  He tapped the blade.

  ‘I favour the soft spot between the balls and the arsehole, personally. Half an inch of sharp iron inserted just so reduces most men to screaming agony in less time than it takes for a snuffed candle to stop smoking. You’ll tell us where your home is, you’ll shout for the doorman to let you in … you’ll do whatever it takes to stop the pain.’

  Leaning forward, he grinned at the man standing before him.

  ‘So, friend, shall we be going? We’ve got a nice dark place where we can all get better acquainted. Some of the boys here, well, they like men like you, all clean and soft, and they’ve not had the sort of fun that I’m thinking about for so long that I think they’ll be taking turns with you for half the night before we even get round to working out where you live.’

  He waited for the inevitable reaction, for the lone aristocrat to make a break for freedom, knowing that more members of his band were waiting behind their victim, but his eyes widened slightly as the man stepped forward instead, close enough for the robber to see his face in the moonlight. The stranger’s expression was set hard enough to send a shiver up the gang leader’s spine, and when he spoke, his voice, though clearly cultured, grated out a single word with a chilling intensity that raised the hairs on his assailant’s arms with a sudden jolt of fear.

  ‘Yes!’

  He struck, the move so fast that the footpad was nose to nose with his intended prey before he had time to react, finding his knife hand captured in an iron grip, while his assailant snatched a handful of hair and then snapped his head forward to deliver a head butt that took the life from the robber’s legs. While he was still staggering at the unexpected attack’s ferocity, his intended victim stripped the dagger from his unresisting grip and whipped the blade up into his throat, arteries and windpipe opened by a single wrenching thrust to release a sudden splatter of blood down both men’s tunics. His assailant pushed the dying man at the nearest of his gang and turned away to confront the men closing in on him from all sides,
raising the knife in a hand already slick with his victim’s life blood. A heavyset thug rushed in with his arms spread to grapple the stranger, only to grasp at thin air as his intended victim danced sideways out of his reach, striking expertly to slit his tunic and the wall of his gut with the blade’s viciously sharp edge. Staggering away from the fight with both hands clasping at the slippery coils of his intestines, the wounded thug obstructed the men behind him as they recoiled away from the stench and horror, and their would-be victim spun away from him in search of fresh blood. Two robbers ran at him, while a third loomed from behind their leader where he lay convulsing on the street’s cobbles as his life ebbed away, advancing on the bloodied aristocrat with his fists bunched.

  Hurling the dagger at the closer of the two runners to bury its blade deep in his chest, he turned without waiting to see the result, sidestepping the advancing pugilist’s first punch and gripping his tunic, throwing his attacker off balance and counter-punching into the hapless thug’s face, breaking his front teeth. While the man was staggering backwards, his assailant took another step forward, putting him down with a trip and following through with a half-fisted punch to his throat that left him straining fruitlessly for breath through a ruptured windpipe.

  ‘We’ve fucking got you now!’

  He straightened his body to find himself ringed by half a dozen more of the gang, eyes hard with hate as they closed around him with shuffling feet, eyes darting glances at each other as they readied themselves to attack, momentarily deterred by the stranger’s blood-soaked rage and the bodies of their comrades littered around him.

  ‘We’re going to fuck you up, you cunt, and then we’re going to open your guts and leave you to die here while we go and have our fun with wherever it is that you call home.’

  ‘Tell me how it happened again.’

  Annia tensed in her husband’s arms in the bedroom’s darkness, her body turned away from his and snuggled back against his chest. Her response was no louder than a whisper, but the distress in her voice was as evident as if she’d shouted at him.