Field Of Blood – Anthony Riches

. . and I am forced to agree . . . that they might yet mutiny and refuse to march any further.’ ‘What . . .?’ For a moment it seemed that Niger might fail to frame the question, such was the degree of perplexity on his face. ‘What can have happened to result in even a hint of such a disgraceful action?’ The tribune looked at Marius.

‘Speak freely, Tribune. We must have the facts.’ ‘We left Adana four days ago, and our scouts continued to forage as before, bringing in food from the farms in our path, but they could only do so where there was food to be found. It seemed that someone was warning some of the farmers to flee before our arrival, and we sent a party of cavalry out in front of the army to find them and put a stop to their interference.’

Niger shook his head in disbelief. ‘You’re telling us that the enemy had scouts operating in the path our army was yet to take four days ago? With all that that would imply?’ ‘So it would seem, Imperator. Slaves belonging to a major estate we came across immediately after the river at Adana told us of a Roman officer, accompanied by a peasant farmer, who warned them to take everything they could carry and run for the hills to avoid being raped and killed.’

Niger shot a meaningful look at Marius. ‘It’s worse than we feared, the enemy must have broken our defence of the Cilician Gates almost as soon as our army marched through it. There is no other way they could be operating in the province so quickly. Yet another affront to our planning, and yet another failure.’ He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, clearly digesting this new and unwelcome information. ‘The warnings that these enemy scouts were spreading before our army were, of course, not without good reason, thanks to the orders allowing exactly such a licence to loot and plunder you persuaded me to issue, Marius.

This estate you mention . . .

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 visiting Housesteads Roman fort in 1996. Married with three grown-up children, he now lives in Suffolk. He is also the writer of the Protector thriller series. OceanofPDF.com Also by Anthony Riches Empire 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 Altar of Blood The Scorpion’s Strike River of Gold Vengeance Storm of War Clash of Legions The Centurions Betrayal Onslaught Retribution OceanofPDF.com Field of Blood Empire: Volume Fifteen Anthony Riches www.hodder.co.uk OceanofPDF.com First published in Great Britain in 2026 by Hodder & Stoughton Limited An Hachette UK company Copyright © Cold Steel Limited 2026 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 ebook ISBN 978 1 399 74178 1 Hardback ISBN 978 1 399 74176 7 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Carmelite House 50 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DZ www.hodder.co.uk OceanofPDF.com To Helen OceanofPDF.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In thanking people for getting this story published, the fifteenth in the series, I need to go back and say thank you to someone who was very special to me over the lifespan of the previous fourteen, although I wasn’t to realise quite how much until early last year.

My wonderful editor Carolyn Caughey died soon after Clash of Legions went to press, leaving the entire publishing community stunned at both the suddenness of her passing and the fortitude with which she bore her last days. I was just a little broken to discover that her final editorial comments to me were written after her diagnosis, at a time when she was really quite seriously unwell, but with no hint of her illness whatsoever.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Unique ID: 34d93505e72a197b
• File Extension: .pdf
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• Title: –
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• ISBN: 9781399741781, 9781399741767
• Pages: 347
• Language: English (en)

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