The ninth novel in the thrilling Empire sequence leads Centurion Marcus Aquila and the Tungrians to the battlefield of one of Rome's most disastrous defeats. The Tungrians return to Rome from Parthia - only to be sent north on a very different new mission in barbarian Germany. Their goal is to capture a tribal priestess who may be the most dangerous person on the empire's northern border. If they can evade the machinations of an old enemy who will stop at nothing to sabotage their plans before they have even set foot on the Rhine's eastern bank . . . . And if they succeed in their mission, they must still regain Roman territory by crossing the unforgiving wilderness that was the graveyard of imperial strategy two hundred years before. And capture by the Bructeris' vengeful chieftain and his warband can only end in one way - a horrific sacrificial death on the tribe's altar of blood. 'Some authors are better historians than they are storytellers. Anthony Riches is brilliant at both.' Conn Iggulden